The Enemy in the Dark
by hersheyman
Summary: The sequel to Mina Aino: Witch in Training.  After the appearence of the dark mark at the Quidditch World Cup intrigue surrounds the triwizard tournament at Hogwarts During Mina's fourth year.  But without Wortail who is causing it?  Review
1. The World Cup

"Can you see, Mom?"

"No. Can you show me what to do with these binoculars again?"

"All right. Turn this knob and you'll see things in slo-mo."

"Thanks."

"Exiting, isn't it?"

"Yes. I've never seen a sport like it."

"Can you believe I play this at school?"

"No! It looks dangerous! So high up, with those big black balls hitting you,"

"It's not. And I'm playing in like the equivalent of a high school varsity team while these are the pros."

"Oh no. That guy's hurt!"

"He's fine. They've got cushioning charms. Krum was feinting. He can look for the snitch by himself for a bit now."

"So this Krum is supposed to be the best there is?"

"Best seeker in the world."

"I can believe that."

The Quidditch World Cup between Ireland and Bulgaria ended in one of the most spectacular finishes in the history of the sport, with Victor Krum catching the snitch in a daring dive and yet not securing the victory for his team, Bulgaria. The crowd roared and clapped for Krum, even the fans of Ireland.

Mina Aino and her mother left the stadium with the crowd, Mrs. Aino's arm wrapped around her daughter's shoulder.

"Thank your headmaster for me. I'm glad we got to go to this."

"If I get the chance. Not many students really get to talk to Professor Dumbledore." Dumbledore had arranged for Hogwarts students and their parents to buy tickets to the world cup at reduced prices. As a result muggles like Mrs. Aino were able to see a Quidditch game for the first time in history with their magical children. It had caused some controversy, but Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge , fresh from his boost in popularity after the capture of the death eater Peter Pettigrew and the exoneration of Sirius Black, had spun it as a sign of increasing cooperation between his government and Albus Dumbledore, the most respected wizard in all of Britain.

"We don't do things like this as mother and daughter anymore. Not since you started your school."

"I know, mom. Maybe we should go camping more often. It's not as expensive as other vacations."

"That sounds like a good idea."

The seats the Ainos had acquired through Hogwarts were near the top of the stadium in one of the cheaper sections. Their position did not matter much as the players flew too fast for even those in the best seats to follow without the aid of omnoculars, magical binoculars that slowed down the images that were seen through their lenses, but it did mean that when leaving they had to follow nearly the entire crowd out of the stadium. It took a full half-hour for them to finally exit the stadium.

**Boom!**

A loud explosion shook the ground, and a cloud of fiery smoke rose among the hundreds of tents in the distance.

The crowd began to scream again, not in excitement, but this time in terror. It moved as if it had a mind of it's own. The Ainos were bombarded on all sides by people pushing and shoving, desperate for a way to get out of there. They tried to hold on to each others hands, but a fat man barreled between them, forcing them apart. More and more people came between them and they were pushed farther and farther away from each other.

"Mina! _Mina!"_

But it was too late. Mina had disappeared from her mother's view, swallowed up by the mob of panicking people./

By the fire that had just broken out, a dozen men in black, hooded cloaks that concealed their faces pointed their wands in the air, where a family of three muggles were squirming in pain, held up by several levitation charms. The husband worked at the camp grounds that had been used to host the world cup.

The couple were screaming from being subjected to a curse with the incantation "crucio!" while the child was screaming even louder from being spun in every direction over a raging fire.

"That's enough." a voice behind the hooded wizards said firmly. "Put them down now."

They turned around. The immediate area, with many burning tents, was completely deserted except for a young, oddly dressed woman. She wore a skintight white and red shirt with a blue collar and a red bow on the chest, a blue mini-skirt, blue heeled shoes, white gloves, a red bow in the back of her hair, a mask over her eyes, and had a glowing crescent moon on her forehead. In short, she looked ridiculous to the group of hardened wizards who enjoyed torturing the innocent.

"Who do you think you are?" one of them asked.

"Didn't think of that." she whispered to herself. She couldn't reveal either of her identities. "I'm Sailor V! And any trouble you make I can throw right back at you."

Twelve voices laughed maniacally. It disturbed her, for even though they were all male, they reminded her of a laughter that haunted her dreams.

"Crescent beam!" She moved her arm in a straight line from right to left, creating a small trench at the feet of the hooded men.

It got their attention. There were cries of "stupefy" as nearly a dozen stunning spells were shot at her.

"Protego!"

The shield spell, one of the ones she had practiced over the spring term at school, was powerful enough while she was in her current form to deflect all of the stunning spells back at her attackers. Three were directly hit and fell unconscious with a graceless thud.

"This is your last warning. _Let them down now."_

Before they could respond, however, a light shot into the sky. All eyes turned to it as it formed a giant shape, a skull. The mouth of the skull opened and a snake grew out of it, it's own face just as frightening as the one it had slithered out of.

The remaining hooded figures began to scream themselves, and one by one they disappeared with a banging sound.

The muggle family, without any of it's captors to hold them up, began to fall. Sailor V yelled "windgardium leviosa!" to slow their descent and make sure that they landed on a patch of earth that was not burning.

"It's all right." she told the sobbing family. "You're safe now."

The husband opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. He used one of the hands with which he was holding his wife and child to point at the skull in the sky.

Sailor V took out her crescent compact and opened it a little. She held it high above her head as a beam of light shot out of the narrow opening straight up. The light hit the figure of the skull, the features of which began to melt. The snake disappeared and the skull soon followed suite, leaving behind nothing but a cloud which had not been there before.

The family was looking straight up as the light destroyed the fearsome image in the sky and only looked back down when the light had disappeared.

They saw that the girl who had saved them had disappeared as well./

"Harry! There you are!"

"Sirius!"

"I thought, with the dark mark-"

"It's ok. It's not _him."_

The image of the skull and snake was the dark mark, the symbol of Lord Voldemort.

"So what happened?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione told Harry's godfather what had happened after they had been separated. They had gotten too close to the source of the fires where the hooded men were and were trying to get away when they heard a voice from a bush cast the spell that created the dark mark. A house elf was found with the wand the culprit used, Harry's wand.

"How did this elf get your wand?"

"I don't know."

Sirius had been arrested when the trouble began. Someone from the ministry wanted to be sure that the former fugitive did not participate in the disturbance. So now they were in a ministry tent.

"They're not going to hold you?"

"No, no. They've got no reason to."

Harry had been staying with Sirius at his old house all summer. It was a relief to both parties when Harry left the Durselys for good. The house was old and infested with many magical creatures like doxies, but magical exterminators were gradually making the place livable again, much to the chagrin of the house elf that had served the Black family, Kreacher.

"Sirius, do you have any idea what that light was that made the dark mark disappear?"

"They're saying it was an auror, but I've never seen the like."

They heard a familiar voice outside the tent. "Mom! Mom! Where are you!"

It was Mina, their classmate from Hogwarts. They left the tent to go see her.

"Harry! Have you seen a woman who looks like me, with darker hair and a longer nose?" There was a note of panic in her voice.

"No, but I'm sure she's all right. Next to no one was hurt."

"I'll feel a lot better when I know she's not one of those "next tos."

"Where did you get separated?"

"All the way back at the stadium."

A ministry wizard had spotted Mina calling for her mother and came up to them, flipping through a packet of forms with names on them.

"Are you Minako Aino?" he asked, finding the first name on his alphabetical list.

"Yes."

"You're mother's fine. We've got her in a tent with other parents who can't find her children."

"Thank god." Mina put a hand to her heart and took several deep breaths.

The ministry wizard motioned for Harry and the others to move away so he could speak to Mina quietly.

"Before I take you to her there's something you should know."

"What?" Mina grew anxious again.

"We've had to modify the memories of all the muggles who were here."

Mina's eyes narrowed and her voice dropped an octave. "What do you mean?"

"It was a ministry order."

"How much did you make her forget?" she demanded.

"The whole night!"

"You _**what!" **_Harry and the others jumped.

"I'm sorry, but those were our orders. No muggles could be allowed to remember this incident."

"_So you erased all her memories of the whole night! __**Who the hell gave you the right to mess with my mom's mind!"**_

"Miss, please calm down." The wizard looked around nervously, Mina was causing a scene.

"No I will not calm down! This is outrageous! You can't just do this!"

"Mina," Harry said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "I know it's not right, but there's nothing he can do.

Mina sighed. "I know. It's just…."

"She's still waiting for you, Miss."

"All right. Take me to her."/

"Mina?" Artemis asked the girl who was pretending to be asleep under the covers. They were back in the Aino apartment, having arrived by portkey.

"Mina, I know you're still awake."

She rolled over to face him, her eyes full of tears. "I shouldn't have left her, Artemis. It's all my fault. If I was there they wouldn't have been able to do it."

"You probably saved three lives and captured three death eaters."

"Did I blow our cover?"

"As far as I can tell having snooped around the ministry people they're spinning it so that

they can claim that they did everything. Your part is being covered up. Even if it wasn't I doubt anyone would connect you with Sailor Venus even if they knew about the legends, or that Beryl could find out about you from it. Mina, you made the best choice."

"But that still happened to my mom!"

"I said the best choice. Not the right one. Sometimes…sometimes there isn't a right choice."

_Your love is forever doomed to fail._

"So are the people I care about supposed to suffer while I'm out saving the world?"

"Mina, sometimes these things are just unavoidable."

"Go away." Mina rolled back over. Artemis walked out of her room, sparing one sad look over his shoulder before leaving./

_I was planning on writing a few chapters for In the Shadow of a Hero first, but my mind was just filled with ideas for this story. So here it is, somewhat earlier than I had planned._

_I think I can say that there will be more of Sailor Venus' attacks in this story like the love and beauty shock, and this time not just in flashbacks, memories, or visions._


	2. The Triwizard Tournament

For the first time, Mina had a compartment to herself on the Hogwarts Express. It seemed bigger without another person like Hannah sitting across from her.

"A last bit of peace and quiet." Artemis muttered tiredly, curling up next to her to sleep.

"Not looking forward to going back to Hogwarts?" She fiddled with her crescent compact in her hands.

"Nothing goes as expected there."

"True. Maybe that's why we students like it so much."

There was some screaming from the hall.

Artemis groaned. "There goes your peace and quiet, Artemis." Mina said, smiling as she went to the door to see what was up.

When she opened the door she heard a shout of "Stop that owl!" before something very small and very fast flew past her into the compartment. It turned near the window to head back out the door, but Mina had shut it already. It flew around, hooting it's annoyance, until Artemis hissed at it to make it shut up. He put his head back down to try to sleep again.

Mina put away the compact, took out her wand and shouted "immobulous!" The small owl froze in midair. She opened the door.

"Your owl is in here!"

"Thanks!"

Ron Weasely came into the compartment, followed by (Mina's cheeks turned red for the second it took her to look the other way) Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, the latter undoing Mina's binding spell.

Artemis then growled and jumped onto the floor to crawl under the seat.

"He's annoyed that I froze him too." Mina said.

"Thanks again." Ron said, putting his owl in a small cage. "Sirius gave him to me 'cause I no longer have a rat, but he doesn't listen to anything. You don't mind if we sit here, do you? Everywhere else is full."

"No problem."

They sat down, only to awkwardly realize that they had nothing to talk about.

"So, how's your mom?" Harry asked.

"She's fine. But she doesn't remember anything from the day of the World Cup. She thinks of "Krum" as a four letter word.

The awkward silence returned. Hermione took out the day's Daily Prophet and opened to a section in the middle. Mina's heart skipped a beat when she saw the front page headline.

**Ministry Cover-Up: Death Eaters at World Cup Captured by Mysterious Sailor V**

"Can I look at that?" Mina asked.

Hermione looked startled for a second. "What? Oh, sure." She watched Mina closely after handing her the paper.

Mina read through the article quickly. It spoke of "anonymous sources" that revealed that a funnily dressed girl, believed to be blonde, five feet eight inches tall, one hundred and thirty pounds, and Irish.

Mina laughed as she read the mostly inaccurate description of herself.

"What's so funny?" Hermione asked.

"According to this the death eaters were captured by an Irish _super-hero_."

Harry chuckled and even Hermione smiled. Ron was confused, however.

"What's a super-hero?"

"It's a thing muggles made up as entertainment." Hermione said. "People with abilities beyond those of mortals who use their powers for good, They usually dress funny, like this Sailor V character the Daily Prophet writes about."

"Have you ever heard of Superman, Ron?" Harry asked.

"No. And I don't think I want to hear of stupid-man."

"The one you need to check out," Mina said, "is Batman."

"Who?"

"A muggle who doesn't have any powers but is super smart and uses his brains to fight crime."

Ron shook his head. "Who wrote that? It's been a month since the cup. Most reporters have moved on."

"Someone named Rita Skeeter."

"Oh.": Ron said. "Her. Dad says she's been nosing around the ministry a lot, and that she only writes stuff that makes people look bad. She created a rumor about bodies being found to 'balance' my father's quote that things were under control."

"Maybe they should have been under less control." Mina said sharply.

"Wasn't she the one who wrote about Percy's boss taking that vacation a few weeks ago?" Hermione asked, cutting in.

"Yeah. Percy said Crouch was overworked and needed a vacation and then she made this big fuss about a ministry big shot going off to Albania in the middle of a crisis."

"What I still don't get," Mina said, "is who set off the dark mark. The death eaters didn't do it cause they ran away from it, but only someone close to Voldemort would know the spell.

Another silence ensued. Ron had gone pale and Hermione looked a little worried, but Harry smiled.

"Good for you, Mina."

"What?"

"Saying Voldemort."

"Oh, well, I, I don't think that it makes sense to be afraid of a name."

Harry's smile broadened. "That's what I've been trying to tell these two for three years now."

"And for that same amount of time I've been trying to tell you to shut it with the name!" Ron said.

The door to the compartment opened.

"Look, it's Potty, the Weasel, and two mudbloods."

The boys got up, but Mina just calmly said "You're outnumbered in here, Malfoy, even if you count the two trolls with you that can't tell one end of a wand from another."

"Is that a threat, mudblood?" Malfoy laughed. "I'm just here to see if any of you know."

"Know what?" Ron demanded.

"You mean you don't know either, Weasely? With your father in the ministry? I guess he's not _important _enough."

"If you're not going to say anything useful then get out." Harry said./

After they got off the Hogwarts Express Mina went with Professor Flitwick to where the choir was massing. The previous year Mina had missed the choir because of the dementors, but this year she was front and center singing the new song at the beginning of the opening feast.

"Did you notice," Ron asked Harry at the Gryffindor table, "how good looking she's gotten? Mina, I mean."

"Yeah." Harry said. "She's carrying herself differently. But his attention did not stay on Mina for long, for he caught the eye of another good looking Asian girl, the Ravenclaw, Cho Chang.

Cho smiled at him, and he spilled his pumpkin juice while attempting his next sip./

Few students noticed during the singing, the sorting, and the first half of the meal that one of the seats at the staff table was unoccupied. One teacher was missing.

Halfway through dinner the doors to the great hall burst open, and a frightening looking man strode through it. His face was covered in scars, part of his nose was missing, and one of his eyes was gigantic. It did not stay in one position, but rolled back and forth, up and down, even facing the inside of his skull. The man's face darted left and right anxiously, as if he was afraid that one of the students would attack him.

"Is that-?" one of the students near Mina asked.

"I would like to introduce you," Dumbledore said, getting up to shake the newcomer's hand, "to Alastor Moody, our new defense against the dark arts teacher."

"It is! It's Mad-Eye Moody!"

"Who?"

"An ex-auror. One of the best. He put more dark wizards in Azkaban than anyone else. Made a lot of enemies though. They say he's gone nuts. Thinks everyone is trying to kill him."

Mina took a look at her new teacher, who was nervously refusing a drink from Professor McGonagall and instead dinking from a small flask he took out of his pocket.

"Professor Lupin may have looked shabby." another student said, but at least he had all of his nose."

"And he didn't have that eye. Ugh!"

Mina would normally have loved to join in that conversation, but her mind was still on Professor Moody, who jumped when Professor Flitwick tried to talk to him.

Here was a man who spent his whole life fighting evil. And what did it get him? A scarred face, many enemies, and a paranoia so acute he did worse than constantly look over his shoulder.

_No peace._/

Professor Dumbledore always gave a small speech at the end of the opening feast. This year it was a little longer.

After the introductory remarks he said "I regret to inform you that the Quidditch cup will not take place this year."

The great hall immediately broke out in angry murmurs. The Weasely twins even shouted at Dumbledore who only smiled, raising his arms to quiet the school down again.

"However, I am pleased to announce that for the first time in hundreds of years Hogwarts will host the Triwizard Tournament." He paused to let the realization sink in for those who knew and the applause to begin and die down.

"In this tournament, one champion was chosen from each school, Hogwarts Beauxbatons, and Durmstarng, before the tournament was discontinued do to the death count. The ministry has assured me that they have taken every precaution to ensure that the tournament will be completely safe now.

"The champions will have to compete in three tasks. The winner will receive the prize of one thousand galleons."

There was another murmur around the hall, as students became exited at the prospect of a thousand galleons.

"To ensure safety standards are met, an age restriction has been applied to the rules of the tournament. No student under the age of seventeen is allowed to compete."

Another angry murmur greeted his words.

"I ask you to not enter the tournament lightly. It is a great responsibility, and should you be chosen, there will be no backing out. It will be a binding magical contract. So consider carefully beforehand whether you are able to fulfill the role of school champion.

"Now off to bed. Chop chop."/

"A thousand galleons." Mina said in bed. "That would solve a lot of mine and Mom's problems."

"You're not allowed to enter." Artemis said. "You're too young."

"Hey, I can dream, can't I?"

Mina closed her eyes and saw herself as the school champion, all the students cheering for her for winning the tournament. She saw Harry come over to congratulate her, with a kiss.

Mina smiled to herself, not knowing that elsewhere Harry was having the same fantasy, only about Cho Chang./

_Once Artemis was part of the story I felt that he had to catch Wormtail when he turned into a rat. Artemis is too skilled and smart to not catch him. That's the reason I made that change. More changes to this story have to flow from that, and they will._

_I wrote the first 5 chapters of Mina Aino: Witch in Training before posting them (I posted those 5 all at the same time, and have had to write each update since. I didn't know about having to wait a few days before being allowed to upload.) For the moment I have a lot of time and I'd like to use it before it runs out and I won't be able to write as much._

_The skipping over scenes I think is a case of darned if you do, darned if you don't. I don't want to write the whole book out again and no one wants to read it again on this site, but at the same time things get cut out. I should have probably had more scenes with Harry Potter, but whenever I considered adding one that didn't make it in it always seemed unnecessary and would have me quoting the book too much. Hopefully I'll find a better balance, but that is going to be difficult._


	3. Mad Eye Moody

Mina's first class of the year was herbology, a combined class with the Gryffindors. They were extracting pus from plant-creatures that resembled slugs called bubotubers. Their pus was a cure for acne when diluted. Mina took a look at Harry, who was working with a rather disgusted expression. She decided that she was going to go to the hospital wing later to get some of the diluted final product.

Immediately afterwards was care of magical creatures, taught by Rubeus Hagrid. The previous year his classes had been mired by Hagrid's worry over the fate of his hippogriff, Buckbeak. With Buckbeak saved the hope of many of his students was that he would be able to demonstrate more interesting animals this year.

All students unanimously preferred the flobberworms.

With a renewed vigor and a determination to provide more interesting lessons than he had the previous year, Hagrid had somehow come into possession of an animal not even Hermione had heard of over the summer, large armored scorpion-like creatures he called blast ended skrewts. They had claws, pincers, a stinger, a sucking mouth on their underbellies, and a spark emitting rear end. About six inches long, Hagrid kept them massed in large boxes, telling the students to feed them whatever it was they would turn out to eat since he did not know himself.

By the end of the class the majority of Hagrid's students had suffered mild burns or cuts. Madame Pompfey was kept busy well into the afternoon.

All of Hagrid's favorite students were too angry with him to stay behind after class to talk with him. Even Mina and Harry agreed with Malfoy's assessment. The best thing would be for the skrewts to be destroyed. But Hagrid had already decided that they would be raising the skrewts as a project over the year.

Later, Mina had her first defense against the dark arts class with Professor Moody. She had been walking though a large hall on the way to the class when she encountered a crowd that was guaranteed to make her late. At the center Harry, Ron, and Hermione were arguing with Draco Malfoy. When the three Gryffindors had turned their backs Malfoy took out his wand. The spell just missed Harry, who spun around, raising his own wand.

"Oh no you don't laddie!"

Making his way through the crowd was Professir Moody, also on his way to his classroom. The moment Malfoy had cast a spell at Harry Moody reacted, pointing his wand at Malfoy, who disappeared the next second, leaving only a small white ferret behind.

The crowd laughed as Moody levitated the screaming ferret up and down.

"Never. Do. That. Again."

"Professor Moody?" Professor McGonagall had just arrived, attracted by the disturbance. "What are you doing?"

"Teaching."

"Is that a student?" she asked in alarm.

"Yep."

"No! She pointed her own wand at Malfoy, returning him to human form. "Professor Moody, we never, never use transfiguration as a punishment! Surely Dumbledore told you that?"

"He might've mentioned it."

"Then never do that again!"

"All right." He looked around the hall. "Off to class, all of you!"

Mina and the other fourth year Hufflepuffs followed Professor Moody to the classroom. At one point he said "I've got my I on you. Don't try anything funny." even though he had not turned around to see them.

They got inside and sat down. Professor Moody looked at them seriously with both eyes.

"_Never,_ attack an opponent when his back is turned. It's a cowardly thing to do. Anyone I see doing that from now on will get detention and lose fifty house points.

"But…" he swayed, "if you ever meet the Dark Lord and his back is turned, don't hesitate to curse him. Hesitating then'll cost you dear. Have constant vigilance!" The class jumped.

"Now, who can tell me about the three unforgivable curses?"

One student raised his hand. "The three curses that are banned. The use of any one of them on another person has the minimum sentence of a life in Azbkaban."

"Right. Take ten points. These curses are the most sinister you'll face out there. The ministry doesn't think you should learn about them till your sixth year, but Dumbledore knows better. He knows that you've got to know what dangers the other side presents. Who can name the unforgivable curses?"

This time a girl answered. "There's the imperious curse."

"The hardest to detect. It allows one to control another person. Observe." He opened a jar on his desk that contained a spider. It crawled onto his hand.

"Imperio!"

The spider began to hop around the desk, moving in a pattern that had to be man made.

"I can make it do anything I want, even kill itself by jumping down one of your throats.

"You have be constantly alert, have constant vigilance, to not fall victim to the imperious curse. Only a powerful will, much more powerful than this spider's, can overcome it. Now what is the second curse?"

"The cruciatis curse." another student answered.

"Shows what the ministry knows. You kids know these curses already! People are learning these things younger and younger; the world's getting more dangerous-"

"Sir?" Mina asked, holding up her hand. "You were telling us about the cruciatis curse."

"Wha? Er…right. The cruciatis curse. That is one of the most effective means of torture in the world. Observe." He pointed his wand at the spider again.

"Please don't." Hannah said form the row behind Mina's.

"Too much for your stomachs, eh?" Moody shook his head, disappointed. "You need to toughen up, or they'll eat you alive out there. Now this curse, if applied long enough, is painful enough to literally drive people insane. It happened to some good people I knew. Been more than ten years, and they still haven't recovered. You never know when these things are going to happen, so you've got to have constant vigilance.

"Now, who knows the final curse? Have you heard of it?" he asked Mina, who looked him straight in the eye.

"Yes."

"And what is it?"

"Avada Kadavra. The killing curse." Artemis had told her about all of the unforgivable curses the year before when he was attempting to research the practical applications of magic against the Dark Kingdom.

"Good. Good. Ten points to Hufflepuff. The worst curse imaginable. It causes instant death. Exactly one person is known to have survived it."

"Harry Potter." Mina said.

"Yes. Now don't go around thinking that you can survive it too. No one knows how Potter got so lucky, and tempting fate is never a good idea. Be sure to have _constant vigilance._

"Now, take out your books and turn to chapter 3."/

"I swear. He thinks we're going to be attacked the second we step out of he building."

Mina was sitting on her bed, looking into a pocket mirror while she held up her bangs to apply the diluted bubotuber pus she had gotten from Madam Pomfrey.

"You can learn a lot from him, Mina." Artemis said.

"Like how to act like a nut. Are you going to tell me to be 'constantly vigilant' and train in the room of requirement every day?"

"I guess not. You defeated a werewolf with your bare hands., and you're close to perfect with your powers and weapons. I don't see what else we can do. Of course we should keep the training up to be sure you don't get rusty, but it wouldn't be as often as last year."

"Good. Then I can go to the library."

"Getting a head start on your homework?" Artemis asked hopefully.

"Not exactly."

Artemis had to wait until she got to the library to see what Mina was up to. He saw the title of the first book she took off the shelves.

"Oh."

It was a book about the theory of memory charms.


	4. The Imperius Curse

Without Quidditch and with fewer training sessions Mina had much more free time than she had the previous year. She was even taking one class fewer, having decided to drop divination.

Much of her time was spent in the library, looking up information on memory charms, but the majority was spent on homework, which she was now able to keep up with. Her grades were improved from the previous year, except in potions. The work was more difficult overall, but she had the time to do it.

The strangest classes were care for magical creatures and defense against the dark arts. They continued to try to find out what the blast ended skrewts ate, though the only thing on the menu they seemed to like was each other. No one had been able to find any reference to blast ended skrewts in any works on magical creatures, not even Hermione.

In defense against the dark arts Professor Moody continued to try to impress on them the importance of being prepared for whatever was out there and being constantly alert. On the third class of the term his lessons took a turn as disturbing as the possibility that Hagrid violated the law by breeding a new race of dangerous creatures.

He was going to use the imperius curse on them.

"But professor! That's illegal!" someone said.

"Dumbledore thinks you can handle it. I've got a lower opinion of your nerves however. Anyone who wants to leave can do so for this lesson."

Only one person left.

"Good. Now the point is to show you what it feels like to be under the curse. If you encounter an enemy he won't politely tell you what he's going to do. You've got to know what to expect, what to look for. You've got to have constant vigilance.

"Now, I'm going to cast the spell on each of you, one at a time. Try to resist. I expect none of you to succeed; even most fully qualified wizards can't do it. But you will never succeed at something you don't try. Now line up and we'll get started."

Mad Eye Moody seemed to have a sense of humor, even if he never laughed. The antics he made the students do would have been quite amusing to those watching if they were not in such dread of what was to come. He made one student sing _The Itsy Bitsy Spider,_ another dance on his desk, another burp the ABCs backwards, and still another do a hundred pushups.

Finally, it was Mina's turn. She gulped as she looked into Moody's normal eye.

"Imperio!"

It was the strangest sensation, like she was floating. It was an oddly pleasing feeling, as if nothing really mattered,

"Do a cartwheel." she heard Moody's voice say in her head. She raised her arms to comply, in the blissful state that left her open to suggestion, but a thought popped up, unwanted.

This was not the first voice she had heard in her head.

"Do a cartwheel."

The bliss was shattered by the horrible memories she had experienced through her encounters with the dementors, and she remembered where she was.

"Do a cartwheel!" Moody's voice reverberated in her mind, much louder than before.

"**Now!"**

"No."

Moody stared at her with both eyes for ten full seconds, mouth slight open. He turned to the other students.

"Were you watching? Aino fought! She fought it, and she actually beat it! Look closely at her eyes, that's where you'll see it. Let's show them again, Miss Aino. They'll have a hell of time controlling _you."_/

In the first week of October a sign was posted around the castle, announcing that the delegations from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons the following week for the triwizard tournament. Many of the students, including Mina, had completely forgotten about the triwizard tournament. But that quickly became the only topic of conversation. People speculated about the other schools and the tasks the champions would be asked to perform.

The staff was also very concerned about the upcoming visit from the other wizarding schools. Hogwarts was cleaned like never before, and the teachers became testy about the skill level of their students. Professor Snape told Mina not to demonstrate any potions to the foreign students so as not to embarrass Hogwarts.

The day the delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were scheduled to arrive the students of Hogwarts were gathered outside the castle in their Sunday best to welcome them.

The Beauxbaton delegation arrived first in a giant carriage flown by dozens of magnificent, giant horses. After it landed two dozen female students exited it. They were all better looking than the average Hogwarts student, even taking into account the fact that they were all seventeen. Their headmistress left the carriage last. She was thin, but so tall that she towered over even Hagrid.

Then the Durmstrang delegation arrived, in a great wooden sail ship that burst dramatically through the surface of the lake. Two dozen male students came out of it, including-

"It's Krum!"

Victor Krum, the famous Quidditch player, the hero of the world cup, was still at school. He walked alongside his headmaster, clearly the recipient of preferential treatment.

The combined schools went into the great hall for dinner. There were few enough foreign students that they could sit among the tables of the four houses without the need for their own table. One girl from Beauxbatons, flanked by two of her friends, took a seat right next to Mina.

"Eexcuse me, but are you part Veela too?" she asked Mina in a thick French accent.

"What? No. Not as far as I know."

"You're a leetle young, but you are beecomeeng beauteeful. I thought maybee weeth your blonde hair you weere like me."

"You're part Veela?"

"My grandmother was one. What ees your name?"

"Mina."

"Fleur Delacour."

"Nice to meet you Fleur."

"Eet ees nice to meet you too, Mina. Eef you like, I can show you some beauty teeps."

"Maybe."

As they finished eating Professor Dumbledore got up to speak.

"First of all, I wish to say welcome to our guests! I hope you will find your stay here enjoyable.

"Now, I present to you the impartial judge that will determine the school champions." Mr. Filch wheeled out an enormous, ornamented stone goblet.

"This is the Goblet of Fire. Any student wishing to enter the tournement must put their name into the goblet on a piece of paper. Doing so constitutes a binding magical contract, so I ask you again to please consider carefully before adding your name. Once you do there is no turning back.

"You have until Halloween to enter your name, at which time the goblet will make its decision.

"I know that this is a competition, and as such will cause raised emotions, but this is as much a chance for interwizarding cooperation. I hope that you will all try to make friends with your guests or your hosts.

"Now, everyone, off to bed."

"I weel see you later." Fleur said to Mina. "To tell you about thee beauty teeps."

"All right."


	5. The Unexpected Champion

It turned out that Fleur Delacour still thought that Mina was part Veela and was determined to prove it. "No one but Veela 'ave 'air so gold." she said. She continued to try to give Mina advice on how to look her best, giving her some of the best makeup and perfume produced in France. Fleur had a thing against beauty potions. "Zey are lies. Muggles use makeup to breeng out natural beauty, not to fake eet."

Whether because of Fleur's advise or because she was seen fairly frequently with the part Veela, Mina was attracting more attention from the male population of Hogwarts than she was used to. It was all very flattering at first, but the way she was sometimes stared at began to get annoying.

And when Mina would look at the Gryffindor table for the one boy whose attention she actually craved, he was either in conversation with his friends or staring at the Ravenclaw table.

Fleur was nice enough, but more than a little arrogant and snobbish. "You weel root for me wheen I become zeh champione?" she asked Mina one time.

"I'll root for you to become the champion, I guess, but how can you be so sure that you'll make it?"

"Of course I weel. 'Oo eelse ees zere?"

"I don't know. But my Quidditch captain, Cedric Diggory, is entering the tournament. And even if he doesn't make it I have an obligation to support my school."

Cedric Diggory was the most popular student in Hufflepuff House. He was good looking, a prefect, a model student, and had captained the Hufflepuff Quidditch team to its only moments of glory in years. Already seventeen, he was the one everyone in Hufflepuff wanted to represent Hogwarts.

Others who were not seventeen tried to put their names in the Goblet of Fire, with varied results that depended on their methods. Dumbledore had put an age line around the goblet that no one under the age of seventeen could pass. Some tried to levitate the papers with their names over the line and into the goblet, but the goblet belched out anything not put into it by hand with an incredibly loud burping noise. Others tried to cross the line after using aging potions to make them temporarily over the age of seventeen. Hannah was one of those who tried, and Mina saw her shortly afterwards with a thick gray beard that went down to her knees.

Finally the day of the picking of the champions arrived and all students were seated in the great hall for the ceremony.

"In a few moments the Goblet of Fire will make its decision." Professor Dumbledore told the school. "When the champions are chosen they will go into the office behind the staff table, where the judges for the triwizard tournament, myself, Madame Maxine, Headmaster Karkaroff, Bartemis Crouch, and Ludo Bagman (the latter two of which were officials from the ministry of magic), will give them information about the first task."

The great hall grew unnaturally silent as everyone waited with anticipation for a sign that the Goblet of Fire was going to do something.

The wait seemed to take forever until, finally, sparks began to stream out of the goblet. The meaning of its name became clear as it eventually released a tall column of flame. When the fire died down a small piece of parchment floated down into Dumbledore's hand.

"The champion from Durmstrang," he read aloud, "is Victor Krum!"

Loud cheering erupted from everywhere in the great hall, for Krum was the one person almost universally admired in all three schools.

The cheering lasted past the time sparks began to be released from the goblet again. It was only noticed that the next champion was being chosen when the column of flame rose again, quieting the great hall down.

"The champion from Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour!"

Fleur had a great, beautiful smile on her face as she followed Krum into the office the champions were supposed to enter. The cheering for her was loud, but it came mostly from the boys, so it did not compare to the cheering Krum received. Many of the students from Beauxbatons who were not chosen broke down crying.

The great hall hushed again. Most of the students assembled were from Hogwarts, and the moment they had been waiting for the most was upon them, the picking of the Hogwarts champion.

The goblet sparked again, it shot out the pillar of fire again, and the last note floated into Dumbledore's hand.

He stared at it for a while, as if for dramatic effect, a serious expression on his face.

"The champion from Hogwarts is….Minako Aino."

"Who?"

Mina's eyes had widened. Most people were confused, for Mina almost never used her full name. Very few people made the connection, but among them were Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, who both turned to stare at her.

"Mina," Dumbledore said, "up here please."

Mina slowly, nervously, got up and walked towards the staff table. Dumble dore was not smiling. Nor were any of the teachers. Now the eyes of every student at Hogwarts were on her. She gulped when she reached Dumbledore.

"Through here, Mina." he motioned towards the office Krum and Fleur were in. When she was inside Dumbledore turned toward the crowd, his smile returning.

"Now we have our three champions. I hope you will show them your support in the trials ahead for them. Good night."/

Krum and Fleur were surprised when Mina entered the office.

"Vhat?" Krum asked. "Is there no Hogvarts champion?"

"Um…" Mina began. She was saved from answering when the door behind her opened, forcing her farther into the office.

"-can't believe you told the school that she's going to be the champion!"

"What other option do you think I had , Severus?" The five judges and Professors Snape, McGonagall, and Moody entered the office.

"The rules are clear, Snape."

"And what are those rules, Crouch?"

"Eexcuse me," Fleur said. "But can someone eexplain what ees goeeng on?"

"It is a most extraordinary thing." Ludo Bagman said. "But Miss Aino's name came out of the Goblet of Fire. She's the Hogwarts champion!"

"What? Zees leetle girl ees goeeng to compete with us?"

"Yes, Miss Delacour."

Fleur glared at Mina. "Ees zees why you preteended to be freend weeth me?"

"No!"

"Mina," Dumbledore said, "look at me. Did you put your name in the goblet?"

"No."

"But of course she ees lyeeng!"

"That's enough, Miss Delacour. Mina, did you have anyone put your name in for you?"

"No."

"Do you know why anyone would want to put your name in?"

Mina hesitated before answering. "No."

Dumbledore sighed. "Very well."

"You don't believe her, do you, professor?" Snape asked.

"Yes, Severus, I do."

"Then she shouldn't be allowed to compete! If she never entered-"

"It does not matter." Crouch said. "The Goblet of Fire represents a binding magical contract. She has no choice in the matter."

"Convenient." Moody said.

"But she's underage!"

"That was just a safety measure." Bagman said. "And the Goblet of Fire has gone out. It won't be active again until the next tournament. How do you propose we pick a new champion?"

"It's settled then." Dumbledore said. "Mina will represent Hogwarts in the twiwizard tournament this year. Do you object, Madame Maxine and Igor?"

Neither did. Both seemed happy that their students would be facing a fourteen year old as they led them out of the office, Fleur shooting Mina another glare.

"Well," Dumbledore said. "I suggest you get back to your dormitory as well. I'm sure Hufflepuff House is waiting to celebrate and it would be a shame to deprive them of this opportunity to make a great deal of mess and noise."

But Mina took her time in getting back to the Hufflepuff common room. As she left the great hall Artemis jumped onto her shoulder.

"You heard?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Do you think it's the enemy?"

"I don't know."

"How would Beryl have found me?"

"Again, I don't know. It's a daring move, putting your name in the goblet."

"But it could allow them to kill me without needing to do it themselves."

"If it is Beryl, which we don't know."

"Artemis, I was obviously chosen because of what I can do as Sailor Venus. But I can't do any of that when I'm not transformed, and I _can't_ transform during the tournament. I'll be helpless."

"Don't say that, Mina. You didn't use your powers to beat Lupin, and you don't need to transform to make a patronus, which is incredibly advanced magic. Your ability to think on your feet and your coordination are more important than your powers."

"I hope you're right."/

"This is ridiculous. Hogwarts is guaranteed to lose with that little mediocre-"

"The Goblet of Fire disagrees with you, Snape." Moody said. "It says that she's a better choice than all the seventh years here. Matter of fact I agree. She's got abilities I haven't seen in the seventh years here."

"Oh, yes. We've heard about your little imperius curse lessons." Professor McGonagall said sharply.

"I have already spoken to Alastor about the problems with his teaching regimen." Professor Dumbledore said. "I believe he is right in this case. Remus also told me at the end of last year that she was unusually gifted."

"She is-"

"Not all gifts are properly revealed in class, Severus."

"All right. But I still think that this is a mistake, headmaster." He and the other teachers turned to leave.

"Please stay, Alastor."

Moody closed the door so no one could her the two of them talk. "What is it?"

"I have been worried since the dark mark appeared at the world cup that something might happen at the tournament. Sirius tells me that Harry's scar has bothered him at some points."

"But what does the girl have to do with Potter, other than being the only one here better able to fight being controlled?"

"I don't know. But this is an unusual circumstance, just not of the kind I feared. Mina seems pretty frightened herself."

"Being the youngest champion when you didn't want to is pretty frightening."

"Yes, but could you keep an eye on her, and on Harry too?"

"I'll keep two."/

Applause greeted Mina when she reached the Hufflepuff common room. Confetti rained down on her head and she was ushered, or rather forced, into the center of the large common room.

"To the Hufflepuff champion!" someone yelled as she was pushed, despite her protests, into a chair which was hoisted into the air and carried around. Someone tipped it and Mina fell off of it.

"Need a hand?" someone asked. The next thing Mina knew Cedric Diggory was helping her up.

"Thanks."

"They're just exited that someone from Hufflepuff made it. You know Hufflepuff doesn't get much glory."

There was a hint of bitterness in in voice. "Cedric, I didn't enter. I don't know what happened."

"I know you didn't." He led her through the party, commanding enough respect that people let them pass.

"That was Tony here." Diggory led her to where an overweight seventh year was sitting on a chair, looking embarrassed.

"What do you mean?"

"He means I put your name in the goblet."

"What?"

"He put in the names of everyone in Hufflepuff who have given the house something to be proud of, including everyone on our Quidditch team."

Mina's legs felt like they had turned to jelly and she had to sit down. But she was starting to laugh a little.

"You mean my name was there because I'm good at Quidditch?"

"Yeah."

She took a long, deep sigh. "It's just an accident. Just an accident."/

Far away, a man with long, white hair received an important piece of information.

"It all went as planned."

"Good." was the answer he received from the voice that made him cringe in fear./

_Well, that's the biggest change from the original so far. Again, keep in mind, Wormtail is out of the picture._

_And again, if you haven't read the books you should do so. They are much better than the movies, though the portrayal of Sirius Black in the fifth movie was much better than the way he was portrayed in that book. In the movie he actually seemed like a mature adult and not the overgrown kid he was in the book. Other than that the books are better than the movies. _


	6. Rita Skeeter

Hermione insisted that they stay up in the common room to discuss what happened at dinner.

"So how do you think she did it?" Ron asked.

"No idea." Harry answered. "Even Fred and George couldn't get past the age line."

"That's simple." Hermione said. "Just ask an older student to put your name in. But how she got chosen is beyond me."

"It's weird," Harry agreed, "a fourth year being chosen as champion over the seventh years."

"At least it wasn't pretty-boy Digory." Ron said.

"I think Harry's right. I think _she's _weird."

"What do you mean, Hermione?"

"Last year she reacts the same as Harry to the dementors, the only other person to do so. Then I noticed that she knew things, things we only found out about through sneaking around or through really clever deductive work, like that Sirius was supposed to be after Harry-"

"I told her that, like I told you."

"Yes, Harry. You told _us,_ your best friends, and a Hufflepuff girl you barely knew."

Harry looked away from her, not happy with the way the conversation was going, but nodded.

"Then when Professor Lupin came into the Shrieking Shack he mentioned that he saw Mina on the Marauders Map, but we didn't see her at all."

"He did?"

"Yes, Ron. Weren't you paying attention?"

"I had a broken leg and then Lupin turned into a werewolf and attacked us. I wasn't hanging on to every detail."

Harry pulled the Marauders Map out of his back pocket and looked at it intently. Hermione had reminded him of something he had noticed on the map the previous year, Mina's trips to what he believed to be the room of hidden things.

"Then her cat shows up with Wormtail in its mouth and drops him at Dumbledore's feet."

"Assuming that it was her cat, Crookshanks was doing the same thing without you knowing."

"I guess, but now she's the school champion, and the only thing she's ever shown any skill at is Quidditch."

"Hermione," Harry said, leaning forward. "You're the smartest person I know, but I really think you're grasping at straws here. The weird things about Mina are not any weirder than what's happened to us the past three years, and if she's up to something else entering the triwizard tournament makes no sense. It would just attract attention."

But when Harry and Ron went up to the boys dormitory Ron asked "You don't think she might be right, do you?"

"About Mina being mysterious? Yeah. That she's suspicious? I don't know."

"Well, she can't be hiding anything as big as a werewolf."/

After the choosing of the champions the school did not know what to make of Mina. On the one hand she was the school champion and they were all for a Hogwarts victory. On the other hand she should not have been the champion at all and was more than an underdog, going up against a witch and wizard who were three years older than her. Her odds of winning were considered about as good as the odds of the Chudley Cannons winning the next Quidditch World Cup.

The Slytherins in particular were against her. Draco Malfoy told her one care of magical creatures lesson that he would on no uncertain terms support a mudblood as his school champion. The resulting fight caused Hagrid to give Malfoy a few detentions. And in potions class Professor Snape seemed determined to punish her for becoming school champion.

At least the suspicion that she had entered the tournament herself for selfish reasons was quickly put to rest when the word spread of the Hufflepuff who put the names of every exceptional member of his house into the Goblet of Fire. Mina received pity for being put in a situation she never sought, but little support outside of Hufflepuff house, where she was now something of a hero.

The news of the source of her name entry was greeted with relief among the staff. It appeared to be just a coincidence that had nothing to do with Harry Potter, who would have been a red flag if his name had been the one chosen. The only one who disagreed was Mad Eye Moody, who held Mina back after many classes to remind her of the importance of "constant vigilance."

Artemis agreed with Moody, to an extent. Though the tournament did not seem that dangerous in and of itself, being a competition of children, there was no denying that Mina was well behind Fleur and Victor Krum when it came to using defensive magic, even with the combative spells she had practiced the previous year. There were many spells that Artemis had thought would be useless against the forces of Beryl that now seemed vitally important if Mina was to avoid serious injury during the tournament, such as stunning spells. They began to pick up their training again, this time practicing the spells they had neglected.

And poor Artemis was the only suitable target for Mina's practice stunning spells.

"This is payback for those dummies last year, isn't it?" he complained the fourth time he was stunned and revived.

"Better you than me in front of the whole school." Mina smiled, enjoying the change in positions.

"Well you better win this tournament. I don't want to have to have gone through all this for nothing."

"Then let's not waste time. Less talking. More stunning."

"Why me?"/

One day more than a week after her name had come out of the goblet Mina was called away from breakfast by a second year who led her to a small classroom where the other champions were already waiting. Also there were the five judges, Mr. Ollivander, the wizard who sold wands on Diagon Alley, and a blonde witch whose glasses made her look like an insect.

"We're here for the weighing of the wands." Bagman said happily. "You'll give Mr. Ollivander here your wands and he'll examine them to be sure that they are fit to be used in the tournament. We can't have you using defective wands, now, can we?"

"Miss Delacour first, I think." Ollivander said. Fleur gave him her wand, which he examined closely. "Rosewood, nine and a half inches. And…is that Veela hair?"

"Eet was my grandmother's."

"Most unusual," He gave the wand a wave and made a bouquet of flowers burst out of it. "but it seems to be in excellent condition."

Next was Krum's wand. "This is a Gregorovitch wand, correct?"

"Correct."

"Hornbeam and dragon heartstring. Ten and a quarter inches and much thicker than any wand I'd make." He made several birds appear from the end. Dumbledore shooed them out the window. "It seems to be in order. Now, Miss Aino?"

Mina gave him her wand. "Yes. I remember this wand. Elm, ten inches, with unicorn hair." He made the wand issue forth a fountain of water. "It's good to see my creation in such fine working condition years after I sold it."

"Excellent!" Dumbledore said. "All of your wands have passed inspection. Now Mr. Bagman will explain about the first task."

"Well, we can't tell you what it is, because it is meant to test your daring, your ability to stand firm in the face of the unknown. That is the theme of the first challenge. So prepare yourselves and be ready for anything the day of the task."

"That's everything." Dumbledore said. "We can send you on to class."

"Excuse me," the witch that looked like an insect said, "but I'm here for interviews with the champions. I'm not leaving until I get them."

"Ah, yes. Children, this is Rita Skeeter. She works for the Daily Prophet."

"I'll start with the youngest, I think." Rita Skeeter grabbed Mina's arm and dragged her out of the room. She opened the nearest door, which led to a broom cupboard.

"Yes. This will do nicely."

They sat down, Mina rubbing her forearm, and Rita took out her quill and a piece of parchment. To Mina's amazement, the quill began to write on its own.

"Now Mina, you're the youngest champion in the history of the tournament. How does that make you feel? Proud? Excited? Nervous?"

"Nervous. Yeah."

"The Goblet of Fire thought that you were a better candidate than all of the seventh years who tried out. Why? What makes you so special?"

"I don't know."

"The only teacher who would comment about you was Professor Snape. He told me you are among the most mediocre students he has ever had. How do you respond to him, especially now that you were chosen as the Hogwarts champion?"

"Well, Professor Snape doesn't exactly bring out the best in his students."

"Really. Perhaps I should write an article about the standards of the staff here at Hogwarts."

Rita's remark was clearly not meant to be part of the article, but her quill continued to write away. Mina looked down at it.

"I never called Professor Snape that."

"Don't worry. We censor our interviews."

"But I never said that at all!"

"Pay it no mind, dear. Now Mina, the public wants to know: what makes a champion? What do you want to do when you leave school?"

"Er…I want to be a singer."

The quill stopped scribbling and Rita's mouth opened.

"You want to be a _singer?"_

"Like the Weird Sisters or something."

"Dear girl, if that's your only ambition, why on earth did you enter the tournament?"

"I didn't! It was a boy, Tony Dessler, who put my name in!"

"All right. All right. Moving on, do you think that you have a need to prove yourself, being muggle-born and all?"

"No."

"Let me rephrase that."

It was a long time before Krum got his turn to be interviewed./

_Everyone thinks that Voldemort is the bad guy. That's got to be a failure on my part, but I can't reveal any more than that._

_It wasn't all the Hufflepuffs who were entered. It was the seventh years who wanted to enter and the most noteworthy of the younger Hufflepuffs. Most of them were not entered._

_My absurd amount of free time is just about out. I'm finally starting my real summer job. So future updates will come less often probably._


	7. Fighting Dragons

The Rita Skeeter article was published two days later. Mina had come to breakfast to find many eyes turned to her, some with expressions of curiosity, some with anger, and some with a twinkle of humor.

"What's going on?" Mina asked the person next to her when she sat down. She was handed that day's copy of the Daily Prophet. The front page article was the Skeeter piece on the triwizard tournament.

Half of it was her interview with Mina. While the fact that someone else had put her name in the Goblet of Fire without her consent was mentioned the article still made it seem like Mina had entered the tournament for her own reasons. It made her out to be a crusader for the rights of muggle-borns.

This won her some more sympathy from certain segments of the student population, but it put a permanent wedge between her and the Slytherins. The majority of them looked down on muggle-borns with contempt. From that day on a full quarter of the student population of Hogwarts was supporting Victor Krum.

Despite her assertion that the article would be censored, the quote Rita Skeeter's quill had attributed to Mina about Professor Snape made its way into the printed version of the interview. Professor Dumbledore had her go up to his office later that day to discuss her blatant disrespect for a teacher, but he believed her she told him what really happened, having already known about the reporter's infamous quill.

Professor Snape, on the other hand, took the quote personally and attributed it to what he called Mina's insufferable arrogance. He proceeded to make her life a living hell during potions classes.

But even the cruelty of Snape could not distract Mina from the fact that the first task was drawing closer and closer./

"Are you nervous?" Artemis asked on the day first task finally arrived.

"Not really, actually. I mean, I feel like I didn't practice enough, but I just can't imagine that they'll make us do anything that's that dangerous. I guess I'm worried that I'll make a fool of myself in front of the school."

"Make sure you eat well at breakfast. You'll need your strength to avoid that outcome."

"Ok."

Before breakfast had ended Professor McGonagall called Mina away.

"The champions are to meet in the champions tent now, Miss Aino." She was pale.

"Is something wrong, professor?" Mina asked as they walked onto the grounds.

"Yes. If you weren't bound-" she stopped herself.

"What is it?"

"It is not my place to tell you."

Mina gulped. "Should I be feeling like I'm going to throw up? Cause I do, now."

"It would not surprise me if all of the champions do so in the next ten minutes."

They walked through the grounds. There was a stadium set up. They went past it, to a small tent where the other champions were waiting outside.

"Good luck, Aino." The look McGonagall gave her told her she'd need it. The other champions kept their nervousness off of their faces, but their rigidity showed just how tense they were.

Barty Crouch came out of the tent, holding a large bag and beckoning them to come in.

"You're task today," he said when they were all inside, "is to get the egg."

While Mina's first thoughts were 'well, that doesn't sound so bad,' Krum's and Fleur's expressions grew much more serious. They knew something that Mina did not.

"Miss Delacour, could you put your hand in this bag?" Fleur complied, and took out a small, bright green lizard with wings. It belched a small whiff of flame.

"Dragons!" Mina exclaimed in horror. Fleur's mouth had contracted to a narrow line, but she did not look surprised.

"A Welsh Green, to be precise." Crouch said. "Now Mr. Krum."

Krum's dragon was red and wingless, making it appear even more serpentine. It was a Chinese Fireball. It wrapped itself around Krum's hand

"And finally, Miss Aino."

Knowing that there was only one dragon left did nothing for Mina's nerves. She slowly put her hand in the bag, and drew out a horrifying grayish black monster.

"The Hungarian Horntail." Crouch said. Mina looked distraughtly at Crouch, but he took no heed. The Horntail was well-known as the most dangerous and aggressive types of dragons in the world. Welsh Greens and Chinese Fireballs did not compare. The miniature version in Mina's hand attempted to club her fingers with it's many horned tail, causing her to drop it.

The rumble of the crowd was beginning to be heard outside as the students took their seats in the stadium.

"These dragons represent the real thing that you will be facing." Crouch said. "They are all nesting mothers. In their nests, among the real eggs, is one special egg. To complete this task you will need to get past the dragon to retrieve that special egg. The egg is also a clue for the task after this one, so retrieving it is of utmost importance. Miss Delacour will go first, then Mr. Krum, and finally Miss Aino."

Fleur left with him, leaving Mina and Krum alone in the tent. Krum began to pace, but Mina's legs did not seem strong enough to hold her up, so she sat.

They could hear the roar of the crowd and the accompanying magically amplified commentary from Bagman. "That was close!" "I thought she had it that time!" "That dragon's angry!"

Finally there was a deafening sound as hundreds of people shouted and applauded. And above it all Bagman's voice rang. "She's done it! By golly, she's actually done it!"

Krum was escorted out to face the fireball, leaving Mina completely alone with little idea of what to do.

Dragon hide was too strong for her to try to fight them directly without her soldier powers. She couldn't transfigure or manipulate something as big as a dragon, and she could not just run past a Hungarian Horntail.

She needed a way around the dragon. If only she could apparate! But her fastest means of travel was flying.

That could work, she thought. She could summon her broom with the charm the fourth years had leanred only a few weeks earlier. But her broom wasn't a particularly fast one. Most dragons could equal it in speed. It would all be a matter of who was more agile, and Mina would place even money on the dragon which could attack with it's mouth, talons, and tail, to say nothing of its fire-breathing capabilities which surpassed those of all other breeds.

A hand was placed on Mina's shoulder and she started. She had been too lost in thought to notice the cheers and commentary on Krum's turn.

Now it was hers./

"This is insane!" Hermione said. "Making students fight dragons!"

"I know." Harry said. He had been worried about Fleur and Krum, but as he watched Mina walk into the stadium he was actually afraid. "Do you think she'll be all right?"

"She hasn't had any time to prepare."

"Blimely." Ron said. "I'm actually glad I didn't submit my name now."

"Come on, Mina." Harry said./

With her legs feeling like they were weighted down with lead and most of her body numb from nervousness Mina slowly made her way to the center of the makeshift stadium.

A strange idea occurred to her just before she caught sight of the horntail, borne of her desire to not face the creature at all. It probably wouldn't work, she thought, but she had nothing to lose by trying.

The horntail was over forty feet long, held by its nest by a long chain that would give it over fifty feet of flying distance to use to try to kill Mina. She gulped again as she scanned the nest for the golden egg among the gray ones, trying not to look at the monster beast.

A cannon was fired, signaling the start of her challenge. Mina raised her wand nervously, praying to god that this would work but not believing for a moment that it could.

"Accio egg!"

To her amazement, the golden egg flew away from the nest straight into her arms. It was larger than a soccer ball.

Where the capture of the eggs had previously garnered applause, this time the result was silence. Mina breathed heavily, looking at the table where the judges were sitting, all expressionless. There was no room yet for relief.

After far too long Bagman began his commentary again. "Look at that! Our youngest champion is the first to get the egg! I think this is going to shorten the odds on Miss Aino.!"

Dumbledore had begun to chuckle to himself. The judges held a discussion for a few minutes, then announced that they were prepared to give their scores. Mina wiped her forehead. They weren't going to make her repeat the task as she had feared.

Madame Maxine gave her score first. She held up her wand, producing a puff of smoke in the shape of the number nine. The crowd finally gave Mina a round of applause. Though they had been disappointed when they had not gotten to see a desperate struggle against the dragon they were pleased that she was beginning to seem to have scored high. Mina would have been delighted to know that Harry was among the loudest of those cheering for her.

Dumbledore held up his wand, giving Mina a score of ten and another round of applause. Bagman did the same. When Crouch gave her third score of ten the roar of the crowd reached unprecedented levels. Mina had taken the lead in points with only four of the five judges weighing in.

The only judge left was Karkaroff, who hesitated before revealing his score, a three.

The boos directed at him lasted a long time, during which he argued with Bagman. Finally Bagman put his wand to his face to make his announcements.

"So there you have it! For being smarter than us judges Mina Aino has taken the lead with forty-two points! Next is Victor Krum with thirty-eight, and then Fleur Delacour with thirty-six.

"The next task will be held in January. Use your eggs to prepare for it."/

Mina was a hero in the Hufflepuff common room. Her solution was so obvious that it was brilliant. She was not the only one who was surprised that no one had thought to make the eggs resistant to summoning charms.

A party was thrown that night, with Mina at the center of it all. And it wasn't only Hufflepuffs who were there.

For her new position as the favorite to win the tournament Mina was finally gaining support outside of her house. Except for among the Slytherins, Mina had become one of the most popular students virtually overnight.

Eventually someone suggested that Mina open the golden egg, to general agreement. Feeling giddy, Mina complied, pulling the top open.

A loud, high pitched whine was emitted from the egg, causing a mass of people to collectively cover their ears. Someone yelled for Mina to close it, and she did.

"What was that? Someone getting tortured?"

"You're not going to have to fight the cruciatis curse, are you?"

"Maybe that's Mad Eye Moody's job."

The speculation about the meaning of the noise lasted long into the night, but only one person knew what it was. Artemis.

He recognized the mermish language; the problem was that he didn't understand it./

_I was going to use the tamer dragon at first and leave out the horntail, but then I thought, why would the extra dragon brought in because the fourteen year old got added be the most dangerous kind? It had to have been one of the original three, so I made it so._

_Cue bad Star Trek joke._


	8. Rita Skeeter's Scoop

"This is a mermaid recording?"

"Yes."

"What does it say?"

"Something about a search. My mermish is really rusty. I can't make anything else out."

"So how am I supposed to know what it says?"

"If you listen to it under water you'll understand it."

"How do you recommend I do that? It's winter. I'll freeze to death in the lake, and there's nothing in the castle bigger than a sink that can get me underwater."

Artemis shook his head.

"What?"

"What do we do here when there's something we need and no way to get it?"

"Oh. Right."/

Mina decided that she would spend a lot more free time in the room of requirement. It had created a large bathtub complete with hot water in the floor. Though she had wanted a bathtub, what the room had provided reminded her more of a Jacuzzi. It was a pleasant change from her original request.

She got undressed and stepped in, letting out a happy sigh as she sank into the water. With Artemis not around she did not open the egg again right away, but savored the warmth she hadn't felt since the end of summer.

When she noticed that her hands had pruned she took the egg from beside her on the floor and took a deep breath. She dunked her head under the water and opened the egg.

This time it was not shrieking that she heard, but people singing. Their voices were absolutely beautiful though more than a little creepy. The voices of me people.

_Seek us where our song is found._

_We cannot sing above the ground_

_While you search remember this_

_We've taken something you'll surely miss_

_An hour you have to look_

_To recover what we took_

_But past an hour the prospect's black_

_Too late, it's gone, it won't come back_

No one was around to hear Mina utter some rather choice curse words when she resurfaced./

"The second task has not yet begun. What sort of report could he have sent?"

The white haired man shuddered under the harsh glare. "It is the reporter woman. She has been following the girl since her triumph in the first task, looking for a story."

"And this is a problem because-?"

"It turns out that the reporter is an animagius. She can turn into a beetle and follow the girl undetected. She can find out the truth."

The white haired man looked away from the one he served during the silence in which the matter was contemplated.

"Have him deal with her."

"It will be done."

"One more thing, my _friend."_

There was a hint of a threat in the way the last word was emphasized.

"Your little pawn is growing more willful, resisting. Exert more control over him. He'd be even more dangerous than the reporter if he throws it off entirely. At this rate he'll have to die, and I'd _hate_ to have to cause a death at this early stage."

The white haired man nodded.

"No get to it!"/

"Hey! Cedric!"

The boy turned around at the entrance to the Hufflepuff boys dormitory. Mina was calling him from across the common room.

He walked towards her. "What is it?"

"Do you know how to breathe underwater?"

Cedric rubbed his chin. "There's the bubble head charm."

"What's that?"

"It makes a bubble of air around your head. Even underwater it can give you air for a few hours."

"That sounds good. Does it help with the water being ice cold?"

"No. Why? Are you planning to go in the lake?"

"That's the second task."

"No way!"

"I've got to swim to the bottom and back."

"Shoot! I've got nothing that can keep you warm underwater. Sorry."

"All right. I'll find a way. They wouldn't make this task if there wasn't a way, right?"/

If there is one class the average student of three of the Hogwarts houses wanted to be early for, it was potions. To not have all your supplies prepared at the bell would lose you house points, unless you happened to be in Slytherin.

So Mina was not happy to be accosted on the way to potions class by a sixth year boy.

"Do you want to go to the ball with me?" he asked.

Mina stopped. "What?"

"The Yule Ball!"

"What's a Yule Ball?"

"No one told you yet? It happens every triwizard tournament! It's a big ball that happens on Christmas!"

"Oh." Mina said skeptically. "Sounds interesting."

"So, want to go with me?"

"Look, I don't even know what your name is."

"Oh, right." He face palmed. "Forgot about that."

"I'm sorry, but I've got to go. I'm late for my potions class."

Sure enough, she arrived just after the bell, losing twenty points for Hufflepuff house. In the past it would have been ten, but Snape was still angry with her for daring to be the school champion.

Three more people asked Mina to go to the Yule ball with them before she learned what it was. In charms class Professor Flitwick told them about the traditional Christmas dance. After class he called Mina over.

"Mina, the Yule Ball always begins with the school champions dancing with their partners."

"I don't understand what the problem is, sir."

"You will have to stay for Christmas this year, and find a dance partner. It's part of the responsibility of being the champion."

"I've got to dance in front of the whole school?"

"Yes."

"I'm not a good dancer."

"The vast majority of the students aren't. Don't worry about it. Just don't make plans to go home and try to find a date."/

Mina sometimes dreamed that she was in a fairy-tale, being asked to a magnificent ball by a handsome prince. The reality of being asked to a real ball was quite different from her expectations. Her position as the current forerunner in the first triwizard tournament in centuries gained her the position as the most eligible bachelorette in the school. Within a few days of being told about the ball she had been asked by over a dozen boys, most of whom she did not know at all. It would have upset her if she was only being asked because of her good looks, but being asked solely because she was the champion was next to infuriating. She turned all of them down.

There was only one person she wanted to go with anyway./

A week later, at care of magical creatures, Harry and Ron looked as forlorn as Malfoy when heading into class to work with the skrewts.

"What's with them?" Mina asked a Gryffindor girl.

"They got turned down by the girls they asked to the ball."

Mina's stomach churned. "They're that upset over it?"

"Well, Ron's just embarrassed. He got a whiff of Veela charm and screamed at Fleur Delacour. But I think Harry really liked the girl he asked."

Mina looked away, blinking in an attempt not to cry.

After class Mina called after Harry, who was walking with Ron and Hermione. She had been too nervous to do this before, but now she could wait no longer.

"What is it, Mina?"

Mina took a long breath. "Er...Harry. Do you…um…want to go…you know…to the Yule Ball with me?"

Harry looked startled. He stared at Mina for a few seconds.

"I don't dance."

'And yet you asked someone else.' "Neither do I."

Ron gave Harry a push on his back. "Of course he will."

"If Harry doesn't say yes," Mina said sharply, "then he doesn't say yes."

Harry's eyes narrowed at Mina's assertion that it was his choice. Then he smiled.

"Sure. I'll be glad to go with you."

"Really?"

"Really."/

"You're mental. You know that, Harry?" Ron said later in the Gryffindor common."

"Why?"

"You almost said no to the school champion. Someone who's quite a looker too."

"I didn't."

"I was wondering about that, Harry." Hermione said. "What made you change your mind."

"I can't really explain it."

"Well, you've got a date. Now what am I going to do?" Ron asked. "Why don't you just admit that you've got no one to go with either Hermione and we can both escape being embarrassed."

"I keep telling you, I _do _have a date for the ball."

"Did someone say they need a date?"

They turned around. "Go away, Ginny." Ron said.

"That's nice, considering I was going to solve your date problems."

"How?"

"I know someone in Ravenclaw who'd be happy to go with you."

Ron was interested now, but only Harry and Hermione noticed Ginny's lips twitching. They didn't say anything though.

"Who?"

"You'll see."/

Mina was busy writing a letter that night.

_Hi Mom,_

_I'm sorry, but I'm not going to be coming home this Christmas. Because of the tournament there is a big ball that's going to happen, and everyone is staying for it. I'd like to change my Christmas present because of it. I'd like a new dress. It doesn't have to be as fancy and expensive as the one dad got you, but there's this boy I'd really like to wow._

_If you could send one of my swimsuits too that would be appreciated. The second task is going to involve swimming._

_Merry Christmas_

_Love, Mina./_

"The Sailor Soldiers had to work underwater in the past. There's got to be a way!"

Mina and Artemis were in the library, looking through books for a way to survive for an hour in ice cold water.

"We'll find it, Artemis. It's got to be simple if they want kids at school to do it."

"Simple like fighting a dragon?"

"Well that was simple in the end."

"Would you stop playing with that!"

Mina had been absentmindedly turning her crescent compact over in her hands.

"Oh. Sorry."

"That's a really dangerous habit you've picked up. What if someone sees it?"

"They'll think it's a compact. There really isn't anything strange about having a magical mirror at Hogwarts."

"I still don't like it. That's a weapon, not a toy."

"I know."

"And when you're playing with it I know you're not paying enough attention."

"I am!"

"Really?"

Artemis pushed closed the book Mina had been holding in front of her. Underneath it was an open book on memory charms.

"You're still focused on this when the next task can kill you if you don't find a way to avoid hypothermia!"

"We'll find a way! But this is important to me too."

"What's important?"

Mina and Artemis looked up. There was Rita Skeeter, notebook in hand.

"So, Mina…I was wondering if you'd give me another interview."

"I'm not happy with what you did with our first interview."

"So should I run with the story?"

"What story?"

"The story of you having powers beyond those of normal wizards. The story of you fighting off a dozen death eaters."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Explain your talking cat then."

When Mina was silent Rita continued. "The story of you being Sailor V. It would get you disqualified from the tournament."

Mina stood up. "All right. I'll give you an interview."

"Splendid! Shall we go to where we were before?"

"Sure. Why not?"

Mina followed the reporter out of the library to the cupboard where they had had their first interview. They sat down and Rita took out her quill.

"Put that thing away. Use my quill."

Rita smiled. "All right." Mina handed her the uncharmed quill to use.

"I was wondering if you could explain some of these powers of yours."

Mina leaned back. "It would be easier if I showed you."

Rita began to scribble furiously, happily surprised by the unexpected cooperation. "Please do!"

The golden light momentarily filled the cupboard, and when it faded Mina was in full costume.

"Amazing." Rita said, awestruck. "Though the outfit is a little absurd, but you don't seem to have had much choice in the matter. _What are you doing!"_

Mina had taken out her wand and was pointing it straight at Rita's face.

"Obliviate!"/

Late that night, after everyone else had gone to bed, Mina was busy throwing all of Rita Skeeter's material on her into the Hufflepuff common room fireplace.

"I hated doing that. Even to her." She threw a photograph into the fire.

"I know. But some things have to be done, even if they don't feel right."

"It was really easy when I transformed." She threw in a record of a conversation she had had with Artemis a few days earlier.

"That spell is more useful than I thought."

"So you think I should use it again?" Mina asked, continuing to throw items into the fire, one by one.

"It may be necessary."

"Some days I really hate this job."/

The white haired man was more confident than he had been the previous time. The change in his demeanor was noticed.

"So our friend has dealt with the reporter?"

"Even better. The girl has dealt with her."

"How?"

"A memory charm."

"Good. Good. There is no need to take control of her then. Speaking of which, how have dealt with your task?"

"I am reexerting control twice as often."

"You know what will happen if there is a single slip-up."

The white haired man gulped. "I know."/

_Sorry for the delay, but like I said, I have less time, and less internet time. This was completed days before I had access to the internet to upload it._

_I didn't know that accio was a common solution here. The few fanfics I've read that included the first task didn't have it. I'd have tried to find a different way of doing it if I knew. Then again, Mina doesn't have the knowledge that the older champions have and without a firebolt I don't see her being able to fly or maneuver fast enough, so I may have had to leave it the way I did._


	9. The Yule Ball

Almost no one went home for Christmas. The only students whose excitement for the coming holiday could not be measured on the Richter Scale were several students from Muslim and Jewish families who had little to no connection to Christmas.

Mina received a reply from her mother the day before term ended. Of course she was disappointed that her daughter would not be coming home for Christmas, but she had sent a one piece bathing suite of Mina's and in her note stated that Mina would receive the ordered dress on Christmas morning.

Artemis agreed that the search for a way to survive in the lake would have to wait until after the Yule Ball. No one could concentrate on even the considerable amount of homework they had over the break because of the excitement for the dance.

She was still getting asked to the ball in the days leading up to Christmas, but now could say that she was already going with someone. The rumor mill started churning, and the school was awash with speculation over who she was going with. The same process was happening with Victor Krum, who also did not reveal his date. The prevailing theory was that the champions of Hogwarts and Durmstrang were going with each other.

The reality of both would surprise everyone.

The entire school awoke with excitement on Christmas morning, not because of the Yule Ball that night, but because almost all of them had received presents. Mina opened her mother's quickly, but gently pulled out the blue fabric.

"Wow, Mom."

The dress was the same one Mrs. Aino had once received from her husband on their anniversary, though smaller.

Artemis was impressed as well. "I didn't know your mother could afford something like that."

"Neither did I."

Mina took out her supply of diluted butober pus to apply some to her face. At least half the school had gotten the same idea, and Madame Pomfrey had run out of the commodity in the hospital wing. For once Hogwarts would be close to being acne free.

"You know what?" Mina said when she was done. "I don't think blue is the right color for me. I'm going to change it."/

As evening came the students were massed by the staircase leading to the great hall. The doors were closed, leading to the mob growing restless. There Harry and Ron waited for their dates, Harry in a nice black set of dress robes, Ron in a set that smelled, bad, was a hideous shade of orange, and seemed more like a dress in many ways. It was a hand-me-down from his great uncle, who wore it when fashion was quite different. Ron's clothing problems made him even more nervous than he would otherwise have been, not knowing who Ginny was setting him up with.

"Harry!"

Harry turned to see what Ron was looking at. Coming down the stares was perhaps the most gorgeous sight he had ever seen. Clad in a dress that had been magically altered to a glowing orange reminiscent of gold that flowed perfectly was Mina. It revealed a moderate amount of bosom, shoulder and back, little enough to be considered quite decent.

"Lucky." Ron said as hundreds of eyes watched Mina slowly descend the stairs in collective shock. They parted as she made her way to Harry.

"Veela, eat your heart out." Harry whispered to Ron, who nodded.

Mina smiled nervously when she finally reached Harry. "Hi."

"Hi, yourself."

Their awkward silence was the sole focus of attention in the room until Victor Krum arrived with a brunette who was very pretty, but had nothing on Mina. Fleur was the last champion to arrive, beautiful as ever, and accompanied by the captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.

Finally the doors to the great hall opened, and the champions and their partners were beckoned to come into the hall. Harry took Mina's hand, which wore a forearm length glove, and walked into the great hall with her, leaving poor Ron alone.

"Great." he muttered. "Where are you Ginny?" The students and their partners were flowing into the great hall while he stood there, looking foolish.

"Ron!" he heard his sister yell. She and her partner, Neville Longbottom, were trying to fight through the crowd to get to Ron.

"Well?" Ron demanded when they succeeded.

"You're date is right here, Ron."

Ron looked just past Ginny. Behind her was an odd looking girl who wore radishes as earrings. The color faded from Ron's face.

"Hello. I'm Luna Lovegood."

Inside the great hall Mina and Harry got their first good look at the girl with Krum. To their surprise, it was Hermione. She had done someting smiled at them as nervously as they felt as they made their way to the head table, where the champions, their partners, the staff, and the judges were seated.

Their places at the table were empty of food, a first for the beginning of a meal in the great hall. There were menus, however, also a first.

The crowd gradually filled the hall, but their was still nothing to eat. All eyes turned to Dumbledore impatiently. He was looking through his menu carefully. Soon he put it down and cheerfully called out "pork chops!" Instantly, a set of savory looking pork chops appeared on his plate. "Dig in!" he said loudly.

The great hall was then filled with the sounds of rustling paper and hundreds of voices calling out their foods of choice. Mina had ordered turkey breast and Harry lamb chops.

"So, er," Harry began, trying awkwardly to make conversation, "how's figuring out what the second task is going."

"Oh, I figured that out a while ago. We're gonna have to swim to the bottom of the lake."

"Really? How?"

"That's the problem. I don't know yet."

"Can you use an aqua lung or something?"

Mina smiled. "The problem isn't breathing underwater. The problem is not getting hypothermia down there."

"I'll ask Hermione later. She might know how, or at least how to find the answer."

"Thanks." They looked at Hermione, who was trying to teach Krum to pronounce her name correctly. The closest he could get was "Herm-o-ninny." They shared a laugh at Krum's expense.

Dumbledore finished his dinner and began walking around the table, asking the champions and their partners how they were enjoying themselves so far. Mina and Harry answered that they were "fine" in an identical manner at the exact same time, causing Dumbledore to chuckle. Fleur and Krum were too enraptured in their conversations, or rather their monologues, about their schools to notice Dumbledore, so he sat down again. Fleur in particular had nothing good to say about Hogwarts when compared to Beaubatons.

"Now, now, Victor." Karkaroff told his student as he went on about the size of the grounds at Durmstrang. "Don't reveal too many more details, or that lovely young lady will know exactly vhere to find us!" He smiled as he said it, but his eyes were serious.

"Why, Igor," Dumbledore said. "Such secrecy…One would think that you didn't _want _visitors!"

"Vell, Dumbledore, we are all protective of our private domains, are ve not? Do ve not jealously guard the halls of learning that have been entrusted to us? Are ve not right to be proud that ve alone know our schools secrets and right to protect them?"

"Oh, Igor, I wouldn't dream of assuming that I know _all _of Hogwarts' secrets. Just the other day, I took a wrong turn on the way to the bathroom and found myself in a beautifully proportioned room I had never seen before, containing a magnificent collection of chamber pots. When I went back to investigate more closely I discovered that the room had vanished. I must keep an eye out for it. Possibly, it is only accessible at the quarter moon, or at five-thirty in the morning, or it may only appear when the seeker has an exceptionally full bladder."

Harry and Mina laughed, Harry thinking that Dumbledore had winked at him. "It's the latter, professor." Mina said.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "Oh, you know of it?"

"Yeah. That room has a lot of secrets."

"There you have it, Igor." Dumbledore said happily. "One of my own students knew something about Hogwarts that I did not."

Dumbledore looked around the table to see that everyone had finished their meals. He stood up and loudly asked everyone to do the same. With a wave of his wand he made all of the tables and chairs stack up against the wall, except for those in a section in the back that had been changed to resemble a bar. With a second wave of his wand he created a stage, two meters high, at the end of the hall. With a final wave of his wand he conjured a complete set of instruments, from pianos and violins to guitars and drums.

"Please give a warm welcome to our special guests tonight, the Weird Sisters!" There was loud cheering and applause as a dozen of what appeared to be rock stars entered the great hall and took their places on the stage. Despite their name, they were all male.

"The champions will now officially begin the Yule Ball!" Dumbledore said. The champions and their partners got up from the head table and walked to the center of the room. Mina placed one of Harry's hands around her waist and took his other hand in hers. She and Harry gave each other nervous smiles before the Weird Sisters started playing, a slow waltz-like melody.

Fleur and Krum knew how to dance, even if their partners did not. They were able to make their dances look graceful. Harry and Mina, on the other hand, could not. It was almost painfully obvious that they were moving clumsily, caught off guard by changes in the tune that required them to change their rhythms and which the other couples had little trouble adapting to. They were not laughed at, however. The small but steady amount of applause that accompanied them from the start of the dance never stopped.

"Relax." Mina said. "Most of the people here can't dance any better than we can. They're not looking for us to make fools of ourselves. Well, maybe Malfoy is, but the point try to enjoy yourself."

"Right."

Dumbledore walked into the middle of the hall escorting Madame Maxine, with whom he began to dance. Staff and students began to follow his example, and soon nearly the entire schools was dancing.

"So that's who you wanted to go with." Mina said.

"What?" Harry said. He hadn't been paying attention, having been distracted by Cedric and Cho coming close to them for a few seconds.

"You wanted to go with that Ravenclaw Cedric Diggory is with."

"Oh. Well, yeah. I did. But-"

"Don't worry about it. I figured as much when you looked like you were going to tell me no. At least now I know who my competition is."

The waltz finally ended, and Harry looked at her intently.

"I think I've figured it out."

"Figured what out?" Mina asked, confused.

When you asked me to go with you, I saw that there was something different about you. I think I've figured out what it is."

"What is it?" Mina was slightly worried. Had Harry figured out the truth about her and her abilities?

"You've really grown up since last year."

"Oh." Mina's voice had the slightest trace of sadness. "Yes. I guess I have."

"And that's why you'll do fine in the rest of the tournament."

"Thanks."

The Weird Sisters started a new song, this time one of their own, a fast paced rock song. Mina and Harry both liked it, but the crowd roared their approval and in the excitement they were getting pushed and shoved all over the place.

"Let's go sit down!" Harry shouted above the roar. "And come back when this quiets down!"

"Fine with me!"

They made their way to the back where the bar had been set up. Ron was their with his date, looking sulky.

Mina sat down next to them as Harry went to order a couple of butterbeers. Ron and Luna stood out with his shabby and her eccentric appearances.

"So, the crowd too much for you too?" she asked.

"I don't like crowds," Luna said, "but we haven't danced at all."

"What? You mean he hasn't asked you to dance?"

"It's all right. I don't really like dancing that much."

When Harry came back with the drinks Ron asked "Did you see her? Fraternizing with the enemy!"

Harry and Mina looked at each other, then at Ron. "Excuse me?" Mina asked.

'Hermione! With Krum!"

Mina and Harry still just stared at him.

"So is Krum working for the ministry, then?" Everyone then stared at her. "The ministry's been building an army of heliopaths to take over the wizarding governments around the world. It would make sense for them to have recruited someone as well liked as Victor Krum." Mina and Harry coughed as they nearly spat out their drinks while trying to restrain their laughter.

"I don't know if I want to hug Ginny or kill her." Ron said.

"At least she doesn't mind that you're not treating her well." Mina observed.

"Watch it." he warned.

"Look, Krum's _my _competition. Would you have cared so much if it was me going with him, like everyone seemed to think?"

"That's not the point?"

"Then what is?"

Ron glared at her, but was unable to respond before he was interrupted.

"What's going on?" It was Hermione. Mina looked at the bar. Krum was there getting drinks. Ron was turning deeper and deeper shades of red.

"Time to go." Mina said to Harry, who also wanted to get out of there before Ron exploded. They went back to dancing, the crowd having partially thinned as people left to get drinks at the bar after beginning to sweat from the dancing./

When the last song had ended, the students were directed to leave the great hall and go to bed.

"I had a good time tonight." Mina told Harry as they were about to part for their respective dorms.

"Me too."

There was another awkward silence.

"Well, good night Harry."

"Yeah. Good night."

Mina turned to leave. She had gone five paces when Harry called "Hey! Mina!"

She turned around again. "Yes?"

"There's another Hogsmeade weekend coming up next month. Would you like to go with me?"

Mina never had a bigger smile than right then. "Yes! That would be great!"/

_I could use some suggestions regarding the second task. I'm leaning towards gillyweed at the moment because it seems like the simplest way to solve everything, but if there is another way that was __**not**__ in the book I'd like to know. Mina will not be transfiguring herself._

_I hope this was convincing. This sort of thing is really new to me._


	10. The Teaacher is a What?

Hermione, it turned out, knew as little as Harry or Mina about underwater magic, other than that it was possible to cast spells underwater. That would do Mina little good, however, as she could not cast spells silently. With neither Hermione or Artemis proving to be much help Mina's prospects for the second task were looking grim.

After New Years the students got back into the routine of school and classes, more forlorn after the high of the Yule Ball. The students taking care of magical creatures were especially distraught. The thought of how big the skewts had gotten over the break was positively frightening.

But Hagrid was not there when they went out on the grounds for class. An elderly, stern-looking woman who gave off the first impression of being a clone Professor McGonagall, was teaching the class instead.

While most of the class was startled by this change, only Harry, Ron, and Hermione were visibly upset by it.

"Where's Hagrid?" he asked.

"He is indisposed." the new professor, Professor Grubbly Plank answered tersely, clearly not keen on talking about that subject.

"What's wrong with him?" Harry insisted.

"Never you mind."

Professor Grubbly Plank had set up a small, outdoor stable that looked like a natural green habitat. There were oohs and aahs when the students saw that it housed several white and silver unicorns. The girls were invited to go up and pet the beautiful creatures as unicorns tended to trust them far more than boys. The unicorns especially liked Mina, actually approaching her and bowing their heads for her to pet them.

"Some people get all the luck." Mina heard one voice say bitterly. "Big Quidditch hero, champion, great dress, goes out with Harry Potter. Even the stinking unicorns like her!"

The nearest unicorn huffed at the girl that insulted them and turned its back on her. Mina sighed. She should have expected people to have become jealous of her. She had been far from the only person who had been interested in going to the Yule Ball with Harry, and being the triwizard champion was the fantasy of over half the school.

In the back, where the boys were, Draco Malfoy gleefully threw that day's Daily Prophet at Harry, saying "the stupid git's too afraid to show his ugly face!"

Harry looked at the front page apprehensively. The featured article was another piece by Rita Skeeter, entitled **Dumbledore's Giant Mistake.** It was an expose on Hagrid, going into detail about his expulsion from Hogwarts in his third year, his decades long stint as gamekeeper, and his teaching troubles, including the alleged illegality of breeding the blast ended skewts.

But most damning, it claimed that he was half-giant. His mother was a giantess who was famous for doing Voldemort's dirty work.

"And here I thought that he must've swallowed a bottle of skellegrow as a kid." Malfoy said.

After class the girls were all pleased. "I didn't know half of the things she told us about unicorns" Hermione was saying. "Like how they-Harry, what's the matter?"

"This!" He tossed the newspaper to her. She read it carefully.

"Well, I thought he must be. I mean, he couldn't have been a full-blooded giant, cause they're about twenty feet tall. But the question is how did she find all this out, especially the stuff about his mother?"

"She was _looking_ for dirt on him! She only interviewed the people who don't like him! Look at this! 'My friend Crabbe got a bad bite from a flobberworm.' They don't even have teethe!"

"I know." Hermione sighed. "It's good to have a proper care of magical creatures lesson for once, but like this? Poor Hagrid."/

"So, where do you want to go first?" Ron asked. It was the day of the visit to Hogsmeade.

"Oh. Actually, I was going to go with Mina today."

Ron opened his mouth, torn between disappointment on the one hand and excitement on the other that Harry had a date. "Have fun then."

Harry found Mina at the gate to the grounds before the path leading to the village. "Hi." she said a little nervously.

They went on to Hogsmeade together. "Isn't it beautiful in the snow?" Mina said when they reached the village. "Harry? Harry!"

Harry started. "What, sorry?"

"You're not listening!"

"Sorry. I was looking for Hagrid."

"Hagrid?"

"Yeah. I haven't seen him since that Skeeter article. He hasn't been to class or even to the staff table. I thought maybe he'd be here because he likes to go to Hogsmeade."

"Yeah. It's been weird not having him around. I like care of magical creatures better now, but-"

"Don't say that Grubblyplank is a better teacher, cause she's not!"

"Come on Harry. We both know she is. There's no getting around that. That said, I _do_ want him back." Harry looked sulky. "Tell you what. Hagrid likes to drink, right? Maybe he's in the Hogs Head or the Three Broomsticks."

"Right. Thanks. I'm sorry I snapped."

They checked the Hogs Head first, as it was closer, but there was still no sign of Hagrid. They did find there, however, Ludo Bagman, having a heated discussion over firewhisky with a group of goblins. They tried to leave, but Bagman saw them just before they were out the door.

"Mina! Harry!"

Harry rolled his eyes and Mina shook her head as Bagman enthusiastically left the goblins to greet them. "How're you doing? Preparations for the second task proceeding all right?"

"Yes." Mina lied.

"Listen, Mina, could we have a word in private?" Mina looked at Harry, who shrugged, then nodded. Bagman led her to an empty table near the back.

"I just wanted to congrajulate you on your performance against that dragon again."

"Then why are we talkng in private?" Mina asked simply. Bagman spared a nervous glance at the goblins, who were watching him intently.

"What do those goblins want, Mr. Bagman?"

"Nothing much, nothing much. Now, Mina, I feel bad about this whole thing. You didn't enter the tournament. It was forced on you. So, if you want any advice-"

Mina stood up.

"Where are you going?"

"We're done here." she said angrily. She went to Harry and left the pub with him.

"What did Bagman want?"

"To help me with the next task."

"That's a little weird, isn't it?"

"More than a little."

"Excuse me." a more hoarse voice said behind them. It was Barty Crouch.

"What were you two doing in the Hogs Head? It's a dodgy place, not for teenagers."

"We were looking for our teacher, Professor Hagrid." Harry said.

"What were you talking to Ludo Bagman about?"

"We-"

Crouch leaned in close to Mina. "You listen to me. You had better stay away from Bagman if you know what's good for you. That man-s"

"Harry!"

They turned yet again, to see Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, coming towards them. He frowned at Crouch when he saw him though.

"Crouch."

"Black." Crouch looked uncomfortable and walked away.

"What was that about?" Mina asked.

"Crouch was the one who ordered me sent to Azkaban, without a trial."

"What!" Harry exclaimed.

"Water under the bridge. Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you."

"We've been looking for Hagrid. We were hoping he had come to Hogsmeade."

Sirius gave a sad chuckle. "Fat chance. He doesn't want anyone to see him right now. He's definately holed up in his hut.

"Look, why don't we go to the Three Broomsticks, pick up a drink?"

"All right. But Sirius, what are you doing here?"

"I thought I'd surprise you." He leaned in to whisper to Harry "And I needed an excuse to get away from that accursed house elf."

Mina was rubbing her forehead. This was not how she had thought a date in Hogsmeade should go. They wnt into the Three Broomsticks and ordered three butterbeers. Finally Sirius addressed Mina.

"So you're the school champion, huh?"

"Yes, Mr. Black."

"Sirius. Any friend of Harry is a friend of mine."

Mina blushed. Siruis looked at Harry, then back at Mina. "Oh, I'm sorry. I should have realized when I didn't see Ron or Hermione."

'It's OK Sirius." Harry said.

"Well, I'll be out of you're hair in a minute. So how are things going with the next task?"

"Other than my having no idea how to survive under freezing cold water, fine."

Sirius smiled. "How about gillyweed?"

"Gillyweed?"

"Eating a bit of gillyweed makes you part fish for a while. You can only breathe underwater, and not in the air. Being part fish should alsp help with the cold." He grinned widely. "James and I once put half a bite in the soup of this kid- he had to stick his head in a bucket for a half hour. Remus fave us detention every day for a week."

"That sounds perfect! How do you get it?"

"The potions supply shop here should have a supply. You should head over before leaving Hogsmeade."

"I will. Thanks."

"One more thing. My friend Remus tells me you can make a full patronus like Harry?"

"Yes."

"Then that can sole the cold problem as well. Have your patronus go ahead of you and it'll warm up the water."

"Thanks again."

"Now I'll leave you two alone." Sirius winked at Harry as he got up to leave. "I wonder what zonko's has picked up in the last fifteen years?"

The rest of their stay in Hogsmeade was enjoyable. They went from shop to shop, buying sweets at Honeydukes, the gillyweed at the potions supply shop, and they ended the day with a snowball fight that left them cold and exhilarated.

"That was fun." Mina said.

"Yeah."

"Do you want to try to go to Hagrid's house, since that's where Sirius said he'd be?"

"Yeah, but we've been going there a lot since he stopped coming to class. He hasn't opened up."

"It's worth a try though."

Harry and Mina walked to Hagrid's hut. A light was clearly on in the window. Harry knocked on the door. "Hagrid, it's Harry! I'm with Mina! We want to talk to you!"

There was no answer.

"Hagrid, open up! We don't care if you're half giant!"

The door opened.

"About ti-"Harry stopped. It was not Hagrid who stood in the doorway.

It was Dumbledore.

"By all means, come in." he said.

Hagrid was sitting on his sofa, crying his eyes out.

"Hagrid," Harry said, "please, why won't just talk to us?"

"A good question." Dumbledore said. "At a time like this, why not let your friends help you?"

"They can' help me bein' a half-giant!"

"But we don't care about that!" Mina exclaimed.

"Living proof of what I've been telling you. I've shown you the letters from parents who remember you that demanded that I let you stay.'

"But tha's not ev'rybody!"

"Do you want universal approval, Hagrid? Not a week goes by that I don't get letters telling me what a horible job I'm doing, but I don't sulk like this."

"Yer not half-giant!"

"How many times do we have to tell you we don't care about that!" Harry shouted. "We just want you back!"

"Please," Mina said, "it's not Hogwarts without you Hagrid."

Hagrid's eyes began to fill with tears again, but they were no longer sad. Far from it, in fact,

"I agree." Dumbledore said. "I won't accept your resignation, Hagrid. I expect you back at work tomorrow.

"I'll be there, sir."/

"What about Bagman?" Artemis asked.

"He's a little too interested in how I do in the tournament."

"What did he do?"

"He wanted to know how he could help me."

Artemis whistled. "For a ministry official and a judge that is suspicious."

"And he was meeting with a bunch of angry goblins."

"What does a sports official have to meet with goblins about?"

"It's weird. And then Crouch told me to avoid Bagman. He seems to know something about him."

"So we've got a big problem here."

"One of the judges may be working against me."/

_After considering the options I decided to stick with gillyweed with the addition of a patronus. Thanls for all the suggestions._


	11. The Second Task

Mina and Artemis did some digging on Ludo Bagman. As he was a famous ministry official it was not difficult to find. Mina had already known that he was a famous former Quidditch star, but she and Artemis had been surprised to find out that towards the end of Voldemort's reign of terror he had been put on trial for supplying information to Death Eaters. He had been acquitted, though, as Artemis pointed out, it was effectively on grounds of stupidity.

"He's easy to fool. He's probably therefore easy to control."

"And if he is being controlled by Beryl or someone, what is he doing with goblins?" Mina asked.

"Maybe she's recruited them; all she'd have to do is offer them more rights. Or maybe they have a separate stake in this that Bagman's involved in. We can't rule anything out at all."

"Does that include the possibility that he was a death eater and might still be?"

"That seems to me be the most unlikely scenario of all, but yes. Even that."

"And it may just be that we're being paranoid, and he's not guilty of anything."

"If that's the case then we're in luck, but this task presents a golden opportunity for anyone who wants to harm you. It's easy to make an underwater death look like an accident."/

Mina was far more worried on the morning of the second task than she had been on the morning of the first. Then she had no idea what was to come. Now she not only knew that she would be swimming in the same water as the giant squid, but that the ministry and the schools had no problems pitting the students against the most dangerous creatures in the magical world. If they had imported dragons there was no telling what foreign creatures they could have put beneath the lake.

And there was no telling what Ludo Bagman might do.

Mina sat down for breakfast a little over an hour before the task scheduled to begin-even wizards waited an hour after eating before swimming-but she had no appetite. She looked at the Gryffindor table hopefully, but Harry was nowhere near Ron, who's mouth was rather disgustingly full.

She walked over to Ron and asked "D'you know where Harry is?"

Ron had to spend six seconds swallowing his food before he could answer. "No. Professor McGonagall wanted him and Hermione for something. I haven't seen either of them since."

"All right. Thanks."/

The whole school was seated in a stadium that had been set up right in front of the lake. The champions stood just a few meters from the waves that gently spread onto the ground. They wore heavy coats, wearing only their bathing suites underneath.

Ludo Bagman's voice rang out. "Now we begin our second task! As our champions already know, something has been taken from them and is being held at the bottom of the lake! They have only one hour to get it back! But what they do not know, is that what has been taken is their partner from the Yule Ball!"

All three champions looked at Bagman in horror. People they cared about were being held in the lake?

But none of them were as worried as Mina. They all knew that the school and ministry would never place the hostages in any real danger. Mina could not be so sure about Ludo Bagman.

The vaguest of possibilities that Harry might be in danger from her enemies was enough to drain the color from Mina's face.

_Your love is forever doomed to fail._

Bagman blew the whistle, and the champions threw off their jackets, exposing themselves to the cold. Mina stopped paying attention to the other champions as she pointed her wand at the water.

"Expecto Patronum!"

The silver phoenix show out of her wand dived straight down into the lake, a glowing area marking the spot where it rested. Mina then took out the gillyweed, a greenish blue plant reminiscent of seaweed. It tasted slimy and rubbery. The moment she swallowed she began to gag. Her head spun and she staggered forward, her arms grasping at her throat. She fell face first into the water.

It was a blessed relief. Water flowed into her mouth and out of her lungs. Yes. She was amazed to discover that she had lungs on the sides of her neck. Much needed oxygen returned to her head, clearing it.

Mina looked forward. Her patronus was still in the water. She kicked off of the bottom of the shallows, propelling herself towards it. The patronus began to move, deeper and farther into the lake. She swam after it, her hands and feet now webbed, enabling her to swim faster than she otherwise would have. The water in the patronus' wake was significantly warmer than the rest of the water in the lake.

Mina and her patronus hugged the bottom of the lake as they went deeper. The merpeople were sure to be at the center, where the lake was deepest. The bottom was full of tall, thick weeds.

After she had been swimming for a while her patronus suddenly changed direction. Mina stopped, having not wanted it to act that way. She quickly followed it, wondering what was up.

The patronus led her to Fleur, who was being attacked by a pack of small, green water demons. Grindylows.

Mina had her patronus fling itself at the grindylows, scattering them away from Fleur. She swam over to the other girl to try to help her, hoping that the patronus would keep the grindylows off of them for a few more minutes.

Fleur gratefully took Mina's hand, but Mina felt a long fingered hand wrap around her lower leg. She kicked the grindylow away with her other leg, but still could not hold onto Fleur. Two more grindylows had grabbed Fleur and were pulling her down into the weeds. She thrashed helplessly, her expression horrified.

Mina again tried to swim to Fleur, but a further two grindylows grabbed her arms and started to pull her down as well. In a rage, Mina pulled her hands together, causing the grindylows to collide. They fell into the weeds, dazed.

Mina could no longer see Fleur, and she had lost her patronus at some point. She dived to the point where Fleur had disappeared.

A large creature rose out of the weeds at that very spot. It was a seven foot tall merman. But he did not look like the mermaids of Disney movies. He was much uglier, bald with completely blue skin.

He pointed a long, sharp spear at her. "Find your hostage."

"But what about Fleur?" Mina tried to shout, though only bubbles escaped her mouth. The merman still seemed to understand.

He lowered his staff to the right a little. "She has failed. Complete the task. Find your hostage."

Mina wanted to scream some more, but he moved closer and she saw dark red on the stone blade of his spear. She followed where the spear was pointing. The bottom seemed to get deeper in that direction. Mina had no choice but to go that way, having lost all sense of where she was.

Mina swam higher above the bottom so as to not tempt the grindylows again. She was extremely troubled. Not only would Fleur not be able to rescue her hostage, but the merpeople were watching them and hadn't lifted a finger to help. The threat of the one merman to run her through with his spear had seemed too genuine.

It wasn't just the absence of her patonus that made Mina feel colder.

At last she came to her destination, a village of merpeople. There were mud huts of various sizes circling the village center, where hundreds of merpeople had congregated. Behind them were three poles in the lakebed, a hostage on two of them. The hostages were unconscious, ghostlike and pale.

One hostage was missing. Mina guessed that Krum had already rescued his. The remaining were Harry, and a small blonde child that must have been Fleur's little sister.

Mina swam to Harry's pole. He was tied to it with a rope. She grabbed the rope, gritted her teethe, and pulled it in opposite directions with all her might. The rope snapped, causing Harry to fall into her arms.

She layed him gently on the bottom and swam to the pole of the little girl as well. Two merpeople blocked her way.

"You have your hostage. Go."

But Mina was not going to let the little girl stay down there alone under the circumstances. Not when there might have been something evil at foot, and not with the beings who had let her sister be taken.

"Fleur's not coming!" she tried to shout, again only producing bubbles. "You know that!"

The merpeople looked at each other for a second, then parted, allowing Mina to free the little girl as well. She grabbed Harry in one hand and the girl in another and swam straight up at the surface.

There was a problem when she broke the surface however. The gillyweed was still affecting her, and she still could not breathe the air. Harry and the girl began to stir next to her as their heads rose above the water, but Mina had to keep her head submerged.

Mina did not hear the screams of the crowd as Harry did, nor see Dumbledore and the other judges come out onto the beach, wands raised. She did feel the pull as the judges speedily summoned them back to the shore as they had with Krum when he had resurfaced. She panicked, not knowing what was going on, but Harry put a hand on her shoulder to reassure her that everything was all right.

She was still part fish when they reached the shore and had to remain in the water for a few more minutes until she turned fully back into a human. When she stepped out of the water, freezing as if she was standing next to a hundred dementors, she was immediately given a large warm towel. She looked at Harry, wrapped in his own towel, who was smiling at her. Nearby Krum and Hermione, also in large towels, were talking excitedly.

"Gabrielle!"

Fleur Delacoure was there, cut up from grindylow claws, but mostly unharmed. She ran to her sister and gave her a big hug.

"I'm sorry! It vas ze grindeelows. Zey attacked me!"

Fleur turned to Mina. "You saved her, even zough she vas not your 'ostage!"

"I thought-" Mina began, relieved to see Fleur all right.

"Zank you!" Fleur gave Mina a big hug, then turned to Harry. "And you! You 'elped!"

"Actually I di-" but Harry stopped when Fleur gave him a kiss on the cheek, which was red when she walked away with Gabrielle.

Mina gave him a mock punch on the shoulder. "Don't get any ideas." It occurred to her that she and Harry hadn't even shared that much of a kiss.

Harry laughed. "Don't worry about that."

"Ahem." It was Ludo Bagman, talking into his wand. "After a discussion with the chief of the merpeople, we know what has happened in the lake and have made our decisions!

"Fleur Delacour displayed an impressive use of the bubble head charm, but was attacked by grind lows and never reached her hostage. We award her twenty-five points." There was cheering, though it seemed muted.

"Victor Krum used an incomplete form of transfiguration that was nonetheless effective. He was the first to reach his hostage and returned five minutes passed the one hour limit. We award him forty-seven points." The cheering for Krum was the usual deafening sound.

"Mina Aino used gillyweed to great effect along with a truly astounding patronus. She was also attacked by grindylows, but was able to fight them off. Having seen Fleur taken out of play, she rescued Fleur's hostage as well when she reached the hostages. We feel that this demonstrates high moral fiber, and award her forty-three points."

The cheering for Mina was louder than even the cheering for Krum. "You're still tied for first place!" Hermione shouted. Mina hugged Harry, both of them dazed and relieved that it was over. When she let him go he pulled her back, and kissed her on the lips.

"Wowee!" Bagman shouted. The cheers of the crowd began to turn to oohs and awes as people saw Mina and Harry kiss. They parted, Mina holding her hand to her lips, euphoric.

"The final task will be on June 24th!" Bagman shouted. "We shall let the champions know what to expect before then."/

_I hope the shippers are happy now._

_If anyone likes the X Men check out my story What Price Innocence?_


	12. The AntiVoldemort Dream Team

Mina was inundated with questions for weeks following the second task. Everyone wanted to know what had happened in the lake.

While her patronus had at first been the thing that impressed people the most- a spell so advanced even most fully trained wizards could not cast it- it was quickly overtaken by her story of how she fought off the grindylows. Her performance where Fleur Delacour had failed proved that her success in the first task had not been a fluke.

And then there was the subject everyone wanted to know about but neither Mina nor Harry were too keen on discussing with other people: their relationship. Harry was a celebrity, and Mina was fast becoming so. It was to be expected.

What they did not expect was that their relationship would become a source of gossip far outside of Hogwarts.

Such gossip was "beneath" the _Daily Prophet_, but not _Witch Weekly, _a tabloid aimed at witches. It was popular with the female population at Hogwarts and widely read.

Mina first noticed that something was up when, shortly after the up-tick in attention she got after the second task started to abate, it rose again. This time, she was asked about Victor Krum and her opinions on Hermione Granger.

"Why would I be pissed at Hermione?" she asked a girl who told her she's support Mina against Hermione before one herbology class.

The girl gave her that month's copy of _Witch Weekly, _with a most surprising front-page article.

**A Love Square? The Strange Romances of the Famous at Hogwarts.**

_By Rita Skeeter_

_A boy like no other, perhaps, but a boy suffering all the usual pangs of adolescence nonetheless._

_Having been deprived of love since his parents were tragically murdered when he was an infant, Harry Potter had sought solace in the companionship of his steady girlfriend, Hermione Granger. Their relationship, which for its duration stunned the student body, seemed to be proceeding smoothly._

_That is, until the arrival at Hogwarts of Victor Krum, the Bulgarian seeker and hero of the last Quidditch World Cup. Miss Granger, it appears, has a taste for famous wizards that poor Harry Potter alone cannot satisfy._

_By the time of the Yule Ball on Christmas she had dumped Harry for Krum the school champion of Durmstrang._

_Harry was of course devastated, but he quickly rebounded, hooking up with the stunning Hogwarts champion, his fellow fourth year Mina Aino._

_However, in an odd twist, Mina had been previously seeing Krum. Indeed, many students were surprised when she did not go to the Yule Ball with him. It is possible that she rebounded with Harry just as he rebounded with her. The result is a new twist on the classic love triangle, a love square, so to say. _

_That Miss Aino has been the focus of the boys' attention is not a surprise, for she is truly a lovely young lady in addition to being the Hogwarts champion._

_That Hermione Granger has been able to do the same is not so understandable._

"_She's really ugly." says Pansy Parkinson, a fourth year. "It's hard to believe anyone would like her."_

_Victor Krum is indeed smitten with Miss Granger. He has admitted that he has "never felt this way about a girl before" and has invited her to come with him to Bulgaria for the summer._

"_She's really brainy," says Miss Parkinson, "so she could be making love potions. It would be easy for her. I think that's how she's doing it."_

_Love potions are, of course, banned at Hogwarts. Albus Dumbledore will no doubt therefore want to investigate these claims seriously._

_For the rest of us, we can only hope that Harry has bestowed his heart on a more worthy candidate this time. It must have been difficult for Miss Aino as well, having lost her boyfriend to a love potion. We can only hope that if Miss Granger gets bored with Mister Krum he and Mina will not break Harry Potter's heart again._

Not all of the response Mina received was positive. A rather large group of girls, most of whom had themselves wanted to go to the Yule Ball with Harry, were convinced that Mina had taken advantage of him as much as Hermione. Mina received a lot of grief from them, though they left Hermione alone for the most part.

But Hermione was still the one who suffered the most from Rita Skeeter's article. Witches from around the country who subscribed to _Witch Weekly_ were forming their own opinions of her, and some her even acting upon it. Hermione began receiving a great deal of hate mail, some of which contained curses, hexes, and assorted irritants such as boil-inducing powders.

Hermione vowed she'd get revenge on Rita Skeeter, and even Mina was angry enough to agree. The question was how she was getting her information, as Dumbledore had banned her from entering Hogwarts long before the second task at the request of the paranoid Mad-Eye Moody, who didn't like her nosing around. Dumbledore hadn't needed much persuasion, having thought of the reporter as having a profoundly negative influence on his students.

So the question was how Skeeter had gotten past Dumbledore and Moody's magical eye. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Mina thought that she must have been doing something illegal to escape their notice, and took to looking at the Marauders Map to try to catch her in the act.

They saw her name appear a few times, usually in the Slytherin common room, where they had no access. It made sense that she'd be there to get her interviews with the Slytherins, but Professor Snape should have noticed her there. The few times they saw her name appear elsewhere in the castle she was gone by the time they got to where she had been.

Rita Skeeter's name was not the only one that shouldn't have been there to appear on the Marauder's Map.

"Look!" Mina said when they were looking at the map one day. "On the third floor! It's Mr. Crouch!"

For some reason, according to the map, Barty Crouch was making unexplained visits to Hogwarts. They couldn't find him either when they looked.

Artemis had found Crouch's actions strange and began doing research on him. Mina thought the cat was getting as paranoid as Moody, but he did find some interesting tidbits.

Barty Crouch was once a respected head of law enforcement during Voldermort's reign of terror. He had authorized the use of the unforgivable curses against the death eaters during the crisis. His strict stand against Voldemort made him popular, and when Voldemort was defeated he was on track to become minister of magic.

Then his son was caught with a group of the cruelest of Voldermot's death eaters and sent to Azkaban, where he died a year later. The political ambitions of Crouch were destroyed in the scandal.

Mina shared this information with Harry, who found Crouch's behavior consistent.

"He was furious with his house elf when she had my wand when it was used to make the dark mark. He sacked her?"

"His _house elf_ was the one that made the dark mark?" Mina asked in shock.

"I don't know. Hermione doesn't think so. If his son was a death eater, he could have made her wait for something to happen before doing it. House elves can be made to do anything by their masters."

"So she might have been forced by Crouch's son to do that even though he was dead? That's horrible. And…that could mean that she knew their was going to be an attack. That's why she had the wand."

"You think the death eaters are that organized?"

"How could I know? Take out the map. Is Crouch on it?"

Harry looked through the Marauders Map. "He's in Moody's office. They're both there, with Dumbledore."

"Crouch, Moody, and Dumbledore, together?"

"Yes."

Mina whistled. "They must really think something's up. That's the three biggest enemies of the dark arts in one room."

Harry nodded. "Yeah. It looks serious."

"Harry, how are you with defensive spells?"

"Er, pretty good I guess. I can disarm people fine."

"I think we should practice things like stunning and blocking. I have because of the tournament, but this looks bad, and you're well, you."

"Don't remind me."/

The newspaper burst into flames.

"I thought the reporter was taken care of!"

"She hasn't found out about the girl again." the white haired man said.

"But now she's told the entire wizarding world that's she's _Harry Potter's girlfriend! That sort of publicity is unacceptable!"_

"_If I may, this could mean that we should change the plan."_

_Cold eyes bore into him. "Explain." The white haired man shuddered. If his idea was not liked, he was about to die._

"_It's not a big change. Perhaps we should consider, keeping the girl alive. Using her against our enemies."_

_The wait for a reply was interminable._

_It was broken by laughter._

"_That's the best idea I've heard from you in a long time, my friend. A very long time."_

_The white haired man breathed a sigh of relief._

"_Yes. That will serve my agenda better for the time being. Tell our agent that after everything is over, he should kill the cat. He'd notice something is wrong, and would not be missed as much as the girl. Secrecy remains the key."_

"_It will be done."_


	13. The Beatle Crushed

A month before the final task the champions were brought out onto the grounds and led to the Quidditch pitch where Hufflepuff had earned its underdog victory the previous year.

Or rather what was the Quidditch pitch.

Where there had previously just been extremely short, perfectly watered grass, there were now small hedges strewn about in a seemingly random fashion.

"Hello there!" Ludo Bagman called. He and the other judges were waiting at the edge of the pitch. "We're preparing the pitch for the final task. By then they'll be twenty feet high! Don't worry about your playing field, though, Mina. It'll be back to normal by the time the season starts again next semester.

"Now," Bagman continued, "can anyone guess what we're making here?"

Mina stared at the odd patterns the hedges were forming, but couldn't imagine what they were for. Fleur was equally stumped.

"Maze." Krum said.

Barty Crouch opened his mouth to speak, but Bagman cut him off. "That's right. The third task is to get to the center of the maze. The triwizard cup will be placed there. The first champion to touch it wins the tournament and the thousand galleons."

"So what ees zeh point of zeh points from zeh feerst twp tasks?" Fleur asked, clearly hoping that her current position in last place would not matter.

"Ah. When the champions enter the maze is determined the amount of points they currently have and the difference between them, so Miss Aino and Mister Krum will be entering first." Karkaroff, Madame Maxine, and Mr. Crouch were all pouting at how Bagman would not let anyone else speak.

"Now, there will be far more to this maze than simple hedges. Obstacles will be placed throughout it, and you will need to be quick and clever to get around them.

"So, prepare well, and good luck!"

The champions and judges dispersed. Mina spared a look at the two judges who stayed behind.

Dumbledore and Crouch were still talking to each other./

"Obstacles? That doesn't sound bad."

Artemis gave a higher than usual meowing sort of noise on Mina's shoulder, a sound she knew was him agreeing with Harry's assessment. She petted his head, but looked a little sad. Artemis still had to keep quiet when she was with Harry.

"You've got experience with those, right? Dumbledore confirmed the rumors about what you did in the corridor on the third floor when he awarded all those last minute house points to Gryffindor at the end of our first year."

"I did, but it was mostly luck."

"The first two tasks were mostly luck too. I panicked with the dragon and would never have even gotten into the lake if not for Sirius telling us about gillyweed."

Harry smiled. "A little more luck like that and we've got a Hogwarts victory then. Nothing to worry about."

Mina smiled as well. "Thanks."/

"Artemis?" Mina asked that night.

"Yes?"

"I'm getting more uncomfortable with this, keeping secrets from Harry."

'Understandable. You two have been getting pretty close."

"So can I tell him, about what I am, what I can do? You've got to be tired of pretending you can't speak so much."

"I am, but, you remember that you said that Dumbledore and Crouch met afterwards, right?"

"Yes."

"We already think that they are investigating something fishy about the tournament. Until we know what it is I think it best if Harry know as little as possible about you. For his own good."

Mina bit her lip.

"I'm not suggesting that you stop seeing him. But wait till after the tournament is over to tell him."/

Being in the dungeons, he Slytherin dorms, especially this dark, empty room had many shadows, but he did not need them to hide himself. Nor did the one he sought.

He had been staking out there for days, ever since he received his orders. Unfortunately, the reporter did not turn up during that time.

But she would soon. He knew it. The final task was too close. She'd want to have another scoop before then.

Various bugs had attracted his attention, but none were her. He had to let them be until she transformed back into a human. He had to be sure it was her before he acted.

Finally, finally. She came. He eyed the beetle as it scurried into the room. The children would follow soon, if it was her. He had to be quick.

He grinned as she grew into a full-sized person. She did not see him move, and in an instant, she was dead.

She hit the floor with a loud thump. There was a yell from the hall beyond.

He cursed. They were closer than he had thought. There was no time to remove and dispose of the body.

He fled, still hidden. The screams of frightened children followed him./

"Who would want to kill Rita Skeeter?" was the question that was on everyone's mind.

The questions of what she was doing in the Slytherin dormitory were secondary, except to the staff. They questioned the students who had found the body and found out that they had been giving her information for her articles, articles that made trouble for students they disliked. That she was an animagius was a surprising revelation for all.

Behind the scenes, Dumbledore tried to persuade the other judges that the tournament should be postponed pending further investigation into Skeeter's death. He did not believe that the two events were unrelated.

When it seemed that there would be no final task, the minister of magic himself, Cornelius Fudge, arrived at Hogwarts to demand that it go on. He insisted that Skeeter had made many enemies through her defamatory work and that one of whom had obviously been dangerous. The ministry, a constant victim of Skeeter's, was in no way sorry she was dead, and not willing to face the possibility that there might be a serious threat to the peace at Hogwarts. As a result the third task would proceed on schedule, and Fudge would be there himself to prove that there was no trouble.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Mina shed no tears over the death of Rita Skeeter, but they were very disturbed by it. However, none were more upset than Mina.

"This is bad." she told Harry. "She was killed because of what she was writing about us. I just know it."

"_How_ do you just know it?" was Harry's response. He shared her concern, though not her certainty.

"Whoever did it knew she would be talking to the Slytherins about us. Otherwise he couldn't have been there."

"It could still be a coincidence."

"It could." Mina agreed at last. "Harry, please be careful."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "You're the one competing in the maze in a few days. I should be telling _you_ to be careful."

"I know. Just, keep practicing all those spells Moody's been teaching us. Please."

Since Skeeter's murder Moody had become obsessed with the stunning and blocking spells. He had also realized that his time as teacher was coming to a close, and was determined that his students should be proficient fighters before he left. He was now having them stun each other or block nasty hexes he cast every class.

Harry lowered his said so that he was looking at Mina over his glasses, but he still said "ok."/

"You know that feeling you get when Hermione's not telling us something?" Harry asked Ron later, having found the other boy also unable to sleep.

"Yeah. Why?"

"I'm getting that about Mina now."

"What d'you think she's not telling you?"

"I don't know. It has something to do with the tournament. She knows more about it than she's let on."

Ron yawned loudly. Neville Longbottom grunted in his sleep in response. Harry and Ron stopped, but Neville resumed snoring, still asleep.

"Maybe she's just scared. After she's the one in the tournament fighting whatever monsters they're putting in the Quidditch field."

"Then why is she so worried about me?"

"Maybe because you're _you._ Hermione said it last year. Everyone knows you've got deadly enemies."

Harry was surprised that Ron remembered something Hermione said a year and a half earlier so well, but his thoughts drifted elsewhere, to Hermione's old suspicions about Mina./

While Harry could not sleep, Mina had no choice but to cure her nervous insomnia with sleeping potions from Madam Pomfrey. The reason they were rarely given out to students was because they induced a dreamless sleep.

But Mina did not have uneventful slumbers. Her nights were filled once again with maniacal female laughing. Though she would have rather tossed and turned, she continued to take the potions., for she needed to be well rested.

The final task was about to begin.


	14. The Final Task

At last, the day of the first task arrived.

The school was abuzz like never before. The recent demise of Rita Skeeter had made the tournament seem more dramatic. In her death Skeeter was still providing more influence on the gossip scene than any other witch in England.

Stares followed Mina that morning more than they had since the Yule Ball. But she did not notice.

More than simple nerves, she had a sense of foreboding. This would be the last chance whoever was behind the strange events would have to hurt her, assuming that was their goal. The murder of Rita Skeeter proved they were dangerous.

And if it was Beryl, as she was dreaming again in her worried state, Mina wouldn't stand a chance.

"Take it one step at a time." Artemis had told her. "Focus on getting through the obstacles first. They'll be dangerous enough without worrying about outside attack."

Mina left breakfast early, having eaten very little. Harry wished her good luck as she passed, but not as enthusiastically as she expected or would have liked./

Mina, Fleur, and Krum gathered just outside the entrance to the maze. New stands had been erected around the pitch because the house stands did not accommodate the extra people from the other schools and the ministry.

Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, and Hagrid met the champions. They were wearing hats with red stars.

"We will be patrolling the edge of the maze." Professor Mcgonagall said. "If you run into trouble and need to be rescued send up red sparks and we'll get you."

They nodded, and Bagman called out to the stands. "The points stand as such! Tied for first place with Eighty-five points apiece are Mina Aino of Hogwarts and Victor Krum from Durmstrang!" There was deafening applause. "They will therefore enter the maze first! Next will be Fleur Delacour, of Beauxbatons, with sixty-one points.

"On my whistle, Mina and Victor will begin the final task."

Mina and Krum stood at the entrance to the maze, their wands at the ready. Bagman was pausing for dramatic effect, and the wait was infuriating them.

Finally the whistle went off.

Mina and Krum, impatient, broke into sprints as they entered the maze, but slowed to a walk ten meters in. Running headfirst into whatever was in the maze was obviously not a good idea. They kept pace with each other, pointing their wands left and right in case something jumped at them.

After thirty meters the path broke in two and they parted, Mina to the left, Krum to the right.

Without Krum's footsteps and breathing next to her Mina realized how eerily quiet it was in the maze. It had been enchanted to keep the noise from the stands out.

Mina turned a corner and screamed.

There was a giant spider in front of her, at least a foot high and three feet across. It clicked the pincers of it's mouth hungrily as it noticed her. More clicking followed, and Mina looked past it. There were two more of the beasts behind the first.

Mina raised her wand. No student could overpower a full-grown accromatula, but the juveniles should still be vulnerable.

"Stupefy!"

The jet of red light struck the front spider, flipping in backwards onto its back.

The other two spiders leapt at her, clicking furiously, and she fled behind the corner again.

Mina stood against the wall, breathing hard. She could still hear the clicking, but it was not as fast as it had been.

Judging by the sound, Mina determined that they were standing still not far around the corner, staying cautious after what she had done to the first one.

Mina gulped, and jumped around the corner again.

"Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!"

She needed to cast the spell so many times, for she had had only a general idea where the spiders were and missed twice before she had stunned the remaining two.

That battle over, Mina took several deep breaths and wiped her forehead.

As she stood there Mina heard Bagman's whistle sound again. Fleur had entered the maze as well.

Mina began to move again, thinking that it was a little unfair that Fleur might benefit from her doing all the work.

She past more forks and turns, enough so that she was now going down a path that Fleur would have little chance of finding herself. Though she hit a dead end once, Mina knew that she was going in the right direction. She, and Krum, were familiar with the layout of Quidditch pitches, giving them another advantage over Fleur.

Mina stopped before another corner. She heard a loud, low thump, like an elephant walking. She peaked around the corner and saw it.

One of Hagrid's blast ended skrewts. At six feet long and four feet tall, it was fully grown. It moved slowly and loudly, like an armored tank.

Mina knew she couldn't fight a skrewt that size unless she transformed, so she doubled back and found another path that led in the right general direction.

Mina continued, until she heard growling and barking. What was frightening was that they were happening _at the same time._

Mina nearly dropped her wand when she saw the source. A great, three headed dog, tethered to the wall by a giant leash. It was three times her height and bared three sets of large, razor sharp teeth.

Harry had told her about Hagrid's pet dog Fluffy and it's aggressive nature. Unfortunately she did not have a musical instrument nearby, and as good as she was at singing, she very much doubted that would do the trick.

It was all up to her stunning spells.

She stepped into view of the dog and cast her spell at the middle head. It drooped, and the other two heads became madder. They attempted to rush at Mina, but the leash kept the monster from getting too close.

Mina finished the dog off with two more stunning spells and went deeper into the maze.

Occasionally she heard a loud boom. At those times she knew that the other champions were fighting off whatever obstacles they were encountering.

When the air suddenly became chilly, even though it was late June, Mina knew there was a dementor nearby. She cast her patronus and let the great phoenix fly on ahead of her to clear the way. She caught sight of a black robe disappearing over the top of the left wall far ahead of her.

She was beginning to think that she was close to the center when she came across a salamander, a big lizard born in fire. This particular breed also breathed fire, and Mina had to duck when it sent a stream her way. The flames hit the wall behind her but did no damage. To prevent the entire pitch from bursting into flame the hedges had been protected from fire.

Mina aimed her wand at the salamander.

"Glacius!"

The charm froze the fire creature in a sheet of ice, stopping it in its tracks. Mine hurried past the lizard. Its body heat was already melting the ice, but by the time it could move again she was long gone.

Mina came to a larger clearing, with a wide path in front of her and an even wider path to the right. In the path in front of her she could see a giant creature, with the body of a lion and the head of a man. A sphinx. It had it's back to her and was talking to someone.

It was Krum.

That was obviously not the way, so Mina looked down the path to the right.

There it was.

Glittering all the way down the path, a good fifty meters away, was the triwizard cup.

Mina looked to the left, and the right. It was too easy. There had to be another creature there to stop her. And it had to be something big.

She walked forward slowly, constantly surveying her surroundings. When she was twenty meters down the path she saw it.

Moving out of a gigantic crevice in the wall to the side was the most monstrous sight Mina had ever seen. A full grown acromantula, it's pincers well above Mina's head, it's leg-span at least twenty feet across.

Mina stopped dead in her tracks. It was over. There was nothing she could do against this most dangerous of beasts without her powers as Sailor Venus.

Mina looked back. Krum was past the Sphinx, but even he stopped when he saw the acromantula.

Going back was no longer an option, and the giant spider was now bearing down on Mina.

In a mad move she dashed forward, ducking as low as she could when she was under the acromantula. It lowered it's body just before Mina was out the other side, knocking her to the ground.

It was still several feet above Mina as she began to crawl out from underneath it. It was turning, the better to be able to eat her.

As soon as she was no longer beneath it Mina pointed her wand at the ground beneath one of its many legs.

"Reducto!"

The piece of ground exploded. It was not a large or spectacular explosion-she needed to be transformed to do that-but it created a big enough fissure that the acromantula lost its footing and fell to one side.

Mina scurried away from the falling spider before getting back up. Krum was just on the other side of the acromantula, but he made no move. Even if he could run faster than Mina, he still had to get around the spider first.

The acromantula stirred and began to rise again. Mina and Krum both turned and ran in the other direction. The spider still had a better view of Krum, so it began to chase after him when it had finally gotten back up.

Mina stopped and panted as she reached the end of the path.

She couldn't believe it. She had won. She had beaten students who were older than her, and done it without her powers!

Slowly, for dramatic effect as Bagman would have done, she reached for the cup./

_In the Prisoner of Azkaban PC game salamanders breathed fire._


	15. Venus Falls

It is a common cliché for people to say "something's wrong" when their situation takes an unexpected turn. Mina did not say it, but she did think it.

The moment she touched the cup the world began to spin. Or was it she that was spinning? She did not know, and it did not matter that much.

What mattered that when she stopped spinning, falling to the ground from dizzyness, she was not in the Quidditch pitch any longer.

Mina grabbed the structure nearest to her as she struggled to stand up, her legs still jelly as a result of nausea. She gasped when she saw what she was holding.

It was a tombstone.

She looked frantically to the left, then to the right. She was in a graveyard she had never seen before.

This could not be part of the task.

"Petrificus totalus!"

Mina had no warning. The spell hit her from behind. Her arms and legs slapped together and she fell on her face.

She was then lifted from the ground, without any physical support. Her assailant, a cloaked man with long white hair who was holding a small bundle, was directing her flight with his hand.

Mina floated, her back against a large gargoyle. She tried to move, to scream, but it was useless

The white-haired man waved his wand, and a dozen ropes appeared around Mina and the gargoyle. They wrapped themselves around her, binding her to the statue. They were incredibly tight, and hurt a great deal. Mina tried to scream again, but she noticed something was odd.

If she was already in the body-binding curse, why did she need to be tied up so tightly that she wouldn't have been able to move an inch?

"Good. Do it now, Lucius."

The voice was high, unnaturally so, and it seemed to be coming from the bundle the man was carrying. He waved his wand again, and a large black cauldron, big enough for a man to stand in, suddenly came into view. It was full of a bubbling substance.

The white haired man, Lucius, pointed his wand at the bottom of the cauldron, and a fire started beneath it. The liquid began to churn even faster. The bundle he carried began to move, as if agitated. A small hand pushed the fabric away from the face of what was inside, and Mina was as close to throwing up as she had been when she arrived, fresh from the spinning.

It had the form of a baby, but it's face was that of a snake, slimy, with only sharply shaped nostrils where its nose should have been and red, slit-like eyes.

"Now."

The man put the thing _into_ the cauldron. It disappeared beneath the surface, and Mina wondered if it had been drowned.

He then pointed his wand at a nearby gravestone.

"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son."

A bone rose out of the ground in front of the gravestone, on which Mina made out the name Riddle. The bone floated through the air until it was over the cauldron, at which point it was dropped into the liquid. The potion sparked and turned a dark blue.

The white-haired man then took a long knife out of his robes. His voice was trembling as he spoke, raising the knife over his own hand.

"Flesh of the servant….willingly given…you will….revive….your master."

Mina wanted to close her eyes, but under the full body-bind she was forced to watch as the man cut his own hand off at the wrist. The appendage dropped into the blue potion, causing it to spark again and turn red.

There was a hissing sound. The man turned to see a large snake, maybe five meters long, approaching him, but he ignored it. He approached Mina with the knife, the snake licking up the blood that dripped to the ground from his wound. Now that he had finished with the part of the ritual that required a sacrifice from him, his confidence was restored. He even put the knife down, allowing the snake to lick all of the blood off of it, and took out his wand again. He cast a spell at his stump of an arm, and a new hand was forged in place of the old.

It was not a hand of flesh, however. It was a hand of a silver-colored metal.

He flexed his fingers to be sure the new hand was working, then picked up the now clean knife and faced Mina.

"Blood of the enemy," he said excitedly now, "you will resurrect your foe."

He stabbed Mina in the arm, just above the elbow. She screamed and squirmed as he drew blood.

As he brought the knife back to the cauldron Mina realized that she could move again. That she could scream proved it. The only things holding her now were the ropes.

The man must have lost his control over his curse when he cut off his hand.

She took a deep breath and began exert herself against her restraints.

The man dripped the blood from the knife into the cauldron. The sparks were rising higher and more violently than before.

Mina continued to try to push her chest, arms and legs out. The ropes were so tight that the pain was excruciating.

The potion died down and disappeared, turning into a thick cloud of steam. When it disappointed a man was standing naked in the middle of the cauldron.

"Robe me." he said, his voice high, like a snake's.

With an almighty cry Mina finally broke through the ropes holding her against the gargoyle. She dropped to one knee, bleeding in many places where her clothes and skin had broken before the ropes.

The new man, now robed in black, turned to face her as she rose, transforming.

"Malfoy," he said maliciously, "did I not tell you to tightly restrain her?"

"I apologize, my lord." the elder Malfoy said, fear very much apparent in his voice.

"No matter." The newcomer drew a wand from his robes and began to examine it like an old lover. His face was exactly the same as it had been when he looked like a child, snakelike and evil, with scarlet eyes. The snake

"Who are you?" Mina demanded. "What the hell is going on?"

The man with the snake face seemed almost surprised. "Oh, I'm sorry, Venus." he said in his high voice. "How rude of me not to introduce myself. I am Lord Voldemort."

Mina started. "How did you-"

"Know about you?" Voldermort chuckled. "I've known about you for some time, Venus. I'm very familiar with the legends of the Silver Millennium.

"As for what is going on, this is all about Harry Potter. _You_ are my key to destroying him."

Mina's eyes narrowed. "How?"

"Oh. Several ways. The way I'd prefer is for you to take the portkey back to Hogwarts and kill him yourself, and Dumbledore too if you can manage it."

"Fat chance."

Mina shivered as Voldermort smiled, a wide grin that made him look even more evil.

"We'll see. Imperio!"

Mina had not expected him to raise his wand so fast. She had barely moved a muscle when the feeling of giddiness that accompanied the imperious curse overtook her and she heard Voldemort's voice in her head.

"Bow."

Voldemort did not know about Mina's attitude towards voices in her head. His expression was one of shock as she pointed her finger at him.

"Crescent beam!"

"Protego!"

Mina ducked as her own attack went sailing over her head. She spared a glance behind her as it burned all the way through the gargoyle she had been tied to. The gargoyle fell from its base, pieces breaking off as it landed.

Mina's mouth was wide open as she looked back at Voldemort, who was smiling again. That had been her best shot.

"Impressive, Venus. I should have known you were that strong-willed. However, if you will not be my pawn, you will be my guinea pig."

It sounded like a threat, but he was putting his wand away. Mina took the opportunity to try again when he couldn't deflect her attack.

"Crescent beam!"

An instant before the beam struck Voldemort disappeared, his cloak rippling like water for an instant. Behind him, Lucius Malfoy yelped as he jumped out of the way of the attack. It burned its way through many tombstones, continuing until it was out of sight.

Voldemort appeared again three meters to the right of where he had been before, one hand clenched in a fist and raised over his shoulder.

Mina froze, petrified in horror. It looked like Voldemort was preparing to use an attack she had seen herself perform in her dementor induced dreams the previous year.

Voldemort swung his arm in her direction, releasing a bright ball of energy her way. Mina leapt to the side.

The energy ball hit the ground behind her with incredible explosive force. The concussive force of the shockwave overtook her in mid-flight, throwing her into the air at dangerous speeds.

Mina hit the ground facing down, swallowing dirt and opening more gashes on her arms and knees.

Although the soil was relatively soft, she hit it so hard that she bounced into the air again, the second time colliding with a tombstone. It broke in two when it made contact with her side, as did many of her ribs.

Mina rolled for over a meter, ending up on her back. She coughed up dirt and blood. Her ears were ringing from being close to the explosion and she could not move from the agony of her injuries. All she could do was moan.

Voldemort approached, walking slowly and silently. He was admiring his hand.

"The power of Venus. Truly remarkable, is not? I begin to see why Dumbledore thinks love is so powerful.

Mina could not hear him, but she still tried to get up. Her body was rebelling against her, and Voldemort seemed to have all the abilities she had had in her past life, but she couldn't give up. She couldn't let him use those powers against Harry. If she could get to the portkey, she could warn him about Voldemort. Maybe find out what to do.

"That's the spirit." Voldemort said as stood up finally. "Don't die so quickly. There are more abilities I want to test."

Voldemort threw his hand at her again, and this time Mina could not even try to dodge his attack. A golden chain of energy extended from his arm and wrapped itself around her neck.

Mina gagged. The energy chain constricted around her neck and burned it. She reflexively grabbed the chain, but it burned through her glove and the skin of her palm. It was so tight around her neck that she was prevented from screaming again.

Voldemort laughed, still holding the other end of the chain. He did not seem to be suffering from touching it at all.

Mina's vision blurred around the edges, and she knew she was on the verge of passing out or dying. With her good hand she took out her crescent compact. She slowly raised it as high as she could and then quickly brought it down with all the strength she could muster. It sliced through the energy chain like it wasn't there.

Voldemort screamed in pain and both combatants collapsed. The energy chain was more connected to him than either of them had thought.

Mina did not have the strength to throw the compact anymore, so she raised her hand and pointed her finger at Voldemort. While he was down she had a few seconds to attack in which he could not defend himself.

But her hand was no longer gloved. Mina had come so close to unconsciousness that she had lost her transformation.

Her window of opportunity was closing. Voldemort was beginning to rise. Mina had one play left.

She took out her wand. Her voice, after receiving terrible burns around her neck and nearly being chiked to death, was nothing more than a hoarse whisper. But it was enough.

"Ac..cio...portkey."

The triwizard cup flew across the graveyard to her hand. She touched it, and when the world started spinning she knew that she was heading back.


	16. The Tale of the Dark Lord's Servant

"Where'd she go?"

The stands were set up high enough so that the crowd could see what was happening inside of the maze. The single most impressive thing any of the champions had done was Krum's getting past the sphinx without using his wand. No one had realized that he was that smart. The scariest thing, for Harry and Hermione at least, was when Mina fought Fluffy. They knew that the giant dog had managed to injure Snape years earlier. Ron was more concerned about the spiders.

But no one had expected Mina to disappear when she touched the triwizard cup.

The cheering for the Hogwarts victory had not yet died down; a large number of students had not noticed anything wrong, but the judges, ministry wizards and witches, and teachers were descending onto the pitch, magically removing the maze and the obstacles piece by piece.

"The cup wasn't meant to be a portkey." Hermione said. "Otherwise Bagman would be saying something."

Harry leaned as far forward as he could without falling into the row in front of them. "What the hell is going on?"

"Easy mate." Ron said. "Mina's fine. She's gotta be."

"Then why does Dumbledore look so worried?"

It was true. For an ancient man supposedly gifted with unparalleled wisdom, Albus Dumbledore was moving with a surprising amount of impatience.

"Even Dumbledore can't track someone who's left via portkey." Hermione said. "Hogwarts couldn't be enchanted against it like it is against apparation. Harry, what's wrong?"

Harry had put his hand to his scar, squinting as if he had a migraine. His eyes were unfocused, as if he was someplace else.

"Harry?"

"If you will not be my slave…" he said in a voice not his own. His friends watched him in horror.

Then Harry screamed as his scar seemed to explode on top of his head. He fell forward, onto the people sitting in front of them./

Dumbledore was silent, though a younger man with his expression would have likely uttered many choice curses.

The center of the pitch was empty, leaving no traces of Mina or the cup. There were no clues to where they had disappeared to.

Most of the staff was still busy clearing up the last third of the pitch, but Barty Crouch and Alastor Moody were hurrying towards him, both looking extremely anxious.

"What is it, Barty?" Dumbledore asked the man who reached him first.

"Dumbledore-I-the dark lord-imperius curse-"

"Slow down, Barty. Collect your thoughts."

"No time for-"

"Avada Kadavra!"

Crouch crumpled to the ground at Dumbledore's feet. The headmaster followed the beam back to its caster.

Alastor Moody.

Dumbledore moved in on the deformed man, but Moody had already acted before Crouch had hit the ground, casting a large fire at the stands. It formed the shapes of various animals as it charged at the students: snakes, spiders, wolves, and lions.

Dumbledore knew instantly what this fire was that caused his entire student body to turn into a mass of screaming terrified children. Fiendfire. A powerful blaze created by dark magic. A few students tried to douse it, to know avail. The majority were shoving each other out of the way, trying to save themselves.

Dumbledore and most of the staff were forced to turn there attention away from Moody and towards the fire. They cast spells to funnel the flames into a thin steam that shot upwards, then down at Dumbledore, who had taken a small vial out of his robes. He caught the fire in the vial and sealed it with a cork.

Meanwhile, Moody had been attempting to escape, and had been caught by Professors McGonagall and Flitwick just outside the Quidditch pitch. He was dueling the two of them at once.

Moody saw the fire disappear in the stands and screamed in desperation. His next spell blew both of his opponents over.

Dumbledore was already coming for him.

Moody turned to run. If he could make it out of the grounds he could apparate away, to his master.

"Stupefy!"

Dumbledore watched as the spell knocked Moody high into the air. He landed five yards from where he had been standing.

Dumbledore was surprised, as Moody would have been, to see that the one who cast that powerful spell was Harry Potter.

He had not fled with the other students, but had gone straight for the man who had betrayed them, his face a mask of fury that would have frightened any death eater not in Azkaban at the time.

He and Dumbledore approached the body.

"Professor! It's Voldemort! He's got Mina!"

The realization of what was happening sunk in quickly, but not the reason why.

There were more screams from inside the pitch. Harry and Dumbledore, both filled with dread over what could have gone wrong now, ran back to the center of the pitch, where many people were congregating.

It was not a pretty sight.

Mina was lying on the ground, unconscious. Her hand was still gripped tightly around the triwizard cup. Her clothes were in tatters and she was reduced to a bloody pulp.

"Is she-"Harry began, not sure he wanted to know the answer.

"Professor McGonagall," Dumbledore said, "please take her up to the hospital wing.

"Severus, meet me in Professor Moody's office with viratiserum in ten minutes. And come yourself, Harry, after you've been assured that Mina will be all right."/

Harry and Snape arrived at Moody's office at the same time, and for once, neither even gave the other a glare as they entered.

"How is Mina?" Dumbledore asked. He had placed Moody in his chair at the desk.

"Madame Popmfrey thinks she'll recover, but she says it'll take a while."

Dumbledore then addressed Snape. "Where is Fudge?"

"He didn't want to come. He's dealing with the press first."

"Giving the press a story before we know what happened. He'll regret that. We all will, probably.

"Severus. I opened Alastor's trunk. Take a look inside."

Both Harry and Snape peeked inside the trunk.

"That's also Moody!" Harry exclaimed.

"No." Dumbledore said. "That is the real Moody, whom you have never met. This is an imposter."

"Using polygenic potion." Snape finished.

"Yes. Do you have the veritaserum?"

Snape handed the potion to Dumbledore, who revived the false Moody and poured it into his mouth.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"Bartimus Crouch JR." the drugged man replied in a monotone voice.

"Crouch's son?" Harry asked.

"You are supposed to be in Azkaban." Dumbledore went on. "How did you escape?"

"My mother loved me, even though my father didn't. Her dying wish was for me to be free, so my parents went to Azkaban with polyjuice potion. My mother and I switched places. The dementors couldn't see, so they didn't know. My father kept he hidden under an invisibility cloak and under the imperious curse."

"How did you come to be in the service of Voldemort again?"

"It started at the Quidditch world cup. Our house elf convinced my father to let me go. I was still under the invisibility cloak, but my father didn't know I was starting to resist his control. There was a moment during the game I was fully aware. I saw a wand sticking out of a boy's pocket and I took it.

"Then they began their riot. My former comrades. The ones who betrayed my master and abandoned him while I languished in Azkaban for trying to find him.

"I was so angry I cast the dark mark to frighten them, to show them he was still out there. They fled like the cowards they are.

"It was then that I saw her, Sailor V. I didn't know it at the time, but it would prove to be the most important thing that happened that night.

"Later, at home, I again freed myself of my father's control. I overpowered him and put _him under the imperious curse. _I forced him to take me to Romania, to my master.

"My father knew of the tournament, and my master saw in it a chance to get at Harry Potter and return to power. He knew that the boy only survived because of his mother's love, and that if he had Potter's blood he could destroy the boy.

"But I had also told my master about what had happened at the world cup, what his former servants had done. But he was most interested in the girl. He pressed me about her, and came to the conclusion that she was the reincarnation of Sailor Venus, the greatest soldier of the legendary Silver Millennium.

"So my master changed the plan. Instead of targeting Potter, we'd target the girl. With her blood my master would gain her powers, and as they were based off of love he'd be able to cancel out Potter's protection. I would be sent to Hogwarts to determine which girl it was, to put her name in the goblet of fire, and to ensure she touched the portkey.

"We recruited Lucius Malfoy to take care of my master and to keep my father under the imperious curse while I was at Hogwarts. I was against it. Malfoy was one of those who betrayed my master, but he insisted on using him. We attacked and subdued Moody just a day before school started. Once in position at Hogwarts I determined that Mina Aino was the girl we were looking for when she resisted the imperious curse in class.

"There were less problems with her than there would have been with Potter. There was never any doubt that the name of Sailor Venus would not be chosen, so there was no need to alter the enchantments on the goblet in any way as there would have been for Potter, and unlike Potter she did not require any assistance from me to do well. All I had to do was confund one boy in Hufflepuff into adding her name and I could sit back and watch

"But the reporter nearly ruined everything. She made the girl famous, especially after she hooked up with Potter. So I had to remove her, and we had to change the plan. Instead of killing the girl we'd first try to place her under the imperious curse first."

"Would she have arrived relatively unharmed if that part of the plan had succeeded?"

"Yes."

"What happened tonight?"

"I brought the triwizard cup out. Everone believed that the paranoid Moody wanted to keep it in his sight, but I used the opportunity to turn it into a portkey. It worked. She was transported to my master.

"Then my father broke free of Malfoy's imperious curse. Malfoy must have then made his sacrifice to contribute to my master's rise. I had to kill my father before he told Dumbledore everything.

"My cover was blown and I had to escape. But I did not succeed."

Dumbledore got up. "Stay with him please, Severus."

"Yes, headmaster."

Dumbledore and Harry left the office together, the elder twirling his fingers through his long beard in deep thought.

"Sailor Venus. Tom Riddle really has outsmarted me this time."

"What was he talking about, sir?"

"An old legend, one I never put stock in. But Voldemort has to believe in the ability to survive death, so he'd have taken stories of reincarnation seriously. If I had I'd have recognized what Mina was when she made her appearance as Sailor V. But I discounted the notion of reincarnation and immortality so that I never made the connection."

"Mina was Sailor V." Harry repeated, struggling to take it all in.

"Yes. Had she confided in either of us we could have prevented this, but from her point of view she must have thought she was facing a worse enemy than Voldemort, so to reveal anything to us would have been to put us in grave danger."

"And Voldemort, is he really back?"

"It seems so, though only Mina can tell us for sure. If it all went as Crouch said, he's far more powerful than ever."

They arrived at the hospital wing. Many people were outside, waiting to hear news of the champion of the tournament, but were kept outside by Madame Pomfrey. Harry and Dumbledore walked past them into the wing.

The school nurse was still tending to Mina. Her face was still covered in bruises.

"She doesn't look any better." Harry said.

"I've been concentrating on the more serious injuries." Madame Pomfrey said. "And there are a lot of them. Serious lacerations, shattered ribs, and internal bleeding! I knew this tournament was a bad idea, and letting a fourteen year old girl compete!"

"It would appear she was attacked by Lord Voldemort, Poppy." Dumbledore said.

There was a loud meow, a sound of deep surprise. They looked up at a windowsill, where a white cat was watching Madame Pomfrey work with a mournful expression.

"The cat that brought Pettigrew in here last year." Dumbledore observed. "You must have some part in this Silver Millennium business. What is it?"

The cat jumped down and walked up to Dumbledore. It was crying.

Then it did something that made Harry jump. It talked.

"First tell me what happened to Mina."/


	17. The Coming Storm

"Regrettable, but all the same, Minerva-"

"You should never have brought it inside the castle!"

Mina's eyelids fluttered open. She was lying on a bed in the hospital wing. Harry was there, along with Ron and Hermione. Cedric Diggory was also present.

"What are Fudge and Professor McGonagall arguing about?" Hermione whispered.

"Something else can't have happened, could it?" This was from Ron.

Mina tried to moan, but her throat was still as badly burned as ever. She looked at her hand, which was in the same condition. The rest of her injuries, from the cuts to the broken bones, had been healed while she was unconscious.

She turned her head towards the door, where everyone was looking. Closer to the door than her was Professor Moody, his magical eye and stumped and wooden stump laid out on a small table next to the bed on which he slept.

Mina gulped-a painful endeavor. Something had happened at Hogwarts while she was in the graveyard or unconscious. Something that put the most famous auror of all time in the hospital.

Fudge pushed the doors to the hospital wing open. Professors McGonagall and Snape followed him.

"Where's Dumbledore?" he demanded.

"In his office, I imagine." Harry said, his voice more than a little annoyed.

"Well confound it, I want to-"

"This is a hospital wing, minister." Madame Pomfrey said, coming into view. "Please keep your voices down."

Fudge was about to reply when the doors to the hospital wing opened again.

It was Dumbledore. His displeasure was as palpable as his presence as he strode into the silenced ward.

"What is happening? Why are you disturbing these people? Minerva, I'm surprised at you. And Severus, you were supposed to be guarding Barty Crouch."

Mina's head jerked up when she heard that Crouch was in custody. Still no one noticed; their eyes were only on Dumbledore.

"There is no need to stand guard over him anymore, Dumbledore!" Professor McGonagall said loudly. "The minister has seen to that!"

"When we told Mr. Fudge that we had caught the death eater responsible for tonight's events," Snape said dryly, "he seemed to think his personal safety was in question. He insisted on summoning a dementor to accompany him into the castle. He brought it up to the office where Barty Crouch-"

"I told him you would not agree, Dumbledore!" McGonagall stated. "I told him you would never allow dementors to set foot inside the castle, but-"

"My dear woman!" Fudge exclaimed. "As minister for magic it is my decision whether I wish to bring protection with me when interviewing a possibly dangerous-"

"The moment that-" McGonagall screamed, "that thing entered the room it swooped down on Crouch and…"

There was no need for her to say any more. Everyone knew. Crouch had suffered the dementor's kiss. He was worse than dead.

Mina's head was racing. Barty Crouch, one of the greatest opponents of Voldemort, the head of the department of magical cooperation, had conspired against her with Voldemort and was now sitting in an office without his soul.

"By all accounts he is no loss!" Fudge insisted. "It seems he has been responsible for several deaths!"

"But he cannot now give testimony, Cornelius, as to _why_ he murdered those people." Dumbledore said.

"_Why_ he killed them?" Fudge seemed almost delirious. "Well that's no mystery! He was a raving lunatic! From what Minerva and Severus told me, he seemed to think he was acting on You-Know-Who's instructions!"

"Lord Voldemort _was _giving him instructions, Cornelius. Those deaths were byproducts of a plan to restore Voldemort to full strength. A plan that succeeded. Voldemort has been restored to his body."

Fudge was visibly shaken. "Pr-preposterous, Dumbledore. You Don't really believe-"

"Barty Crouch confessed the whole tale under the influence of veritaserum. From his smuggling out of Azkaban to his re-entry into Voldemort's service to tonight's disasters."

Fudge looked down, then up at Dumbledore again. "You believe that You-Know-Who is back, based solely on the word of a raving lunatic?"

"Not only based on it. Both Mina and Harry witnessed his return. Harry was the one who told me that Voldemort was torturing her before she used Crouch's portkey to return."

"And how does Harry know this? The girl disappeared, not him."

"He has been connected to Voldemort ever since that night he got his scar. It bothers him when Voldemort is near or feeling murderous."

Fudge actually laughed. "Forgive me Dumbledore, but I've never heard of a scar acting as a warning beacon before. You still have no evidence to back up your claims."

"Malfoy was there!" Mina croaked. Her voice was barely audible from her throat injury, but everyone turned to her. Most were surprised that she was awake. Artemis, whom she had not seen on the floor, leapt onto the bed.

"Malfoy cut off his own arm…made a silver replacement…Look at his arm."

"Poppy," Dumbledore said. "I thought you had finished treating her."

"I've done all I can, headmaster. I can't do anything for those burns. I have no idea what caused them."

Dumbledore turned back to Fudge. "You have a witness who can provide evidence of the involvement of another death eater, injuries that could not have been caused by anything in the maze, and testimony from an accomplice under a truth potion that he was working to restore Voldemort."

Fudge backed away. "I don't know what you and your staff are playing at, Dumbledore, but I have had enough. I must return to the ministry, but I will be in tough with you soon to talk about the running of this school."

Fudge placed a large bag on the bed nearest the door. "Her winnings, since it does not appear that we will have a ceremony."

Fudge left, leaving a stunned crowd behind.

"Poppy, please open a window." Dumbledore said. Silently, the school nurse obliged.

Into the window flew a magnificent scarlet bird, with a large wingspan.

"Fawkes." Harry said.

The phoenix landed on Mina's bed, shaking it so that Artemis had to leap off again. It leaned it's head over Mina's hand and began to cry. Mina's eyes and mouth opened wide as each tear completely healed the burns on the skin it touched, until her entire hand was healed. She immediately rubbed her wet hand around her neck, removing the burns that prevented her from speaking.

"What's this about Crouch?" was the first thing she said.

Dumbledore explained about Barty Crouch junior and his impersonation of Mad Eye Moody. Mina's head fell back onto her pillow when he reached the part of how Voldemort recognized that Sailor V was actually Sailor Venus.

"Pretty much everyone knows now." Artemis said with no regard for all the people listening.

"That's not it. Voldemort. He must have realized then that I didn't have all my powers. He was too careless for that."

"What do you mean, you don't have all your powers?" Dumbledore asked.

"I mean, my stronger powers. I can't use them. But he did. He took my blood, blocked everything I could do, and had no trouble using what he called "the power of Venus."

Dumbledore sighed, and turned to the other students gathered. "I suggest you all get to bed. Mina will need her rest. We all will, after this."

Only one person didn't linger to say anything to Mina as he left, Harry./

Mina left the hospital wing in time for lunch the next day. She walked by the Gryffindor table, but Harry did not acknowledge her even when Ron poked him in the ribs.

Mina did not eat anything that lunch./

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were leaving the great hall when Dumbledore stopped them.

"Harry, could I have a word?"

Harry spared a fleeting glance at his friends. "Sure, professor."

"Come to my office."

Harry followed dutifully, until Dumbledore was sitting in his chair surrounded by the portraits of all of the former headmasters of Hogwarts.

"I noticed at lunch that you were ignoring Mina."

Harry looked down.

"If there is something bothering you, you should discuss it with her. It is not right to shut her out."

"How can I, sir?" Harry demanded. "How can I trust her? You heard Artemis. She's been lying to me since we ran into that dementor on the train last year!"

"Everyone has secrets Harry. You have never told her of the connection your scar gives her to Voldemort."

"That's different! That never came up! She lied about even the dementors!"

"Yes. She had visions of events she did not understand, events not even you could relate to. At that time her grades dropped, she became testy, and she lost many of her friends. She was all alone.

"And she has remained alone ever since Artemis revealed the truth to her. She has carried a burden no one has known about.

"Do you not think she wanted to tell you? To tell you that it is because of her that you are living with your godfather and not with your aunt and uncle? That it is because of her that the man who betrayed your parents is in Azkaban right now?

Harry stopped. Part of the reason he was so close with Ron and Hermione was that they shared their experiences. They were usually with him for at least part of his escapades. It was why he began talking to Mina so much the year before. She was the only other person whom the dementors caused to faint.

But he now knew that she had been going through something totally different, and Harry would not have understood it. That was why he had never been able to speak to Cho Chang. They had no common frame of reference to begin talking.

"Only by talking can you find out just why she has kept this from you for so long. It may be that she was trying to protect you, but I can do no more than speculate. She can tell."

Harry was nodding. "You're right. After what's happened, I'm being a jerk, aren't I?"

"You have every right to be upset, Harry. Relationships should have as few secrets as possible and should be built on trust. But you have to decide if it is more important to you than the anger you are feeling. Only you can convince Mina that she is not alone anymore, and that she does not have to keep these secrets so close to herself any longer."

"I don't know if I can do that sir. But I can try."/

_There is no peace for you_

It was late afternoon, and Mina was sitting with Artemis in front of the lake.

"Last year we talked about this." Mina said.

"About what?"

"About how Voldemort is so dangerous because he has servants everywhere. And I didn't listen to my own advice. I just showed off in front of a bunch of death eaters."

"You couldn't have known Voldemort would even notice, let alone make the connection."

"I should have done _something. _There's got to have been a way to stop this that I missed."

"Mina." Artemis didn't know what to say. She refused to do anything other than blame herself.

"How the hell am I supposed to beat Beryl when I can't even handle Voldemort?"

"You'll get there. You'll unlock all your powers. You'll find the other soldiers."

"And _they'll_ be a big help if they take so long to develop their powers. Or am I the only one that's so useless?"

Artemis just shook his head.

"Hey."

They both turned around. Harry was walking towards them, two drinks in hand.

Artemis gave him a look, then gave Mina one, and scampered away.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to the fact that he can talk." Harry said. "D'you mind if I sit down?"

"No."

"I got a couple of butterbeers from the kitchen. The house elves there have a stock. It'll warm you up."

"Thanks."

_Your love is forever doomed to fail_

Harry handed her one of the mugs he was carrying and sat down next to her. "Nice sunset." The horizon had become a brilliant orange.

"It is."

"Almost makes you forget we're facing a war."

_No peace_

"Not really."

"I guess there's no point in asking how you are, is there?"

"I was tortured, nearly killed, and I made the guy who tried to kill you as a baby more powerful than ever. Yeah. I'm fantastic."

"Voldemort was always going to come back one day. Crouch said if it wasn't you it would've been me. And I don't know that I'd have gotten away to warn anybody."

Mina was silent.

"Come on Mina. Talk to me. It's ok. Even superheroes can be scared."

"Oh god!"

Mina broke down, spilling the rest of her butterbeer.

"I'm scared." she sobbed. Scared of Voldemort. Scared of Beryl. Scared that I'll lose you, or one of them we'll take you away. Or my mother. Or Artemis. I'm so scared."

Harry took her hand. "I'm scared too."

Mina wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I wanted to, but I thought I was doing to right thing."

"I know. And that's what counts. There's a lot of evil out there. And it just got stronger. It's up to people like us to do something about it. Together."/

_That's book 4. On to book 5!_

_I had also planned an idea where it was the Dark Kingdom that was behind everything, although this is what I ultimately went with. It involved Kunzite wanting to recruit Mina and using the tournament to test her. But he gradually becomes suspicious that Harry is Endymion, which would make Mina the princess. If that were true he'd have to kill Mina and let Beryl have Harry, except he doesn't want her and Endymion to get together because that would distract her from leading the dark kingdom, so he keeps his suspicions secret from her until he is ready to act on them himself. Basically I decided that this version would a) be more likely to be long enough to justify at least a third act while the Kunzite idea might have to be wrapped up right here, and b) I happened to like it more._


End file.
